The One Where They Help Save the World
by Marcus S. Lazarus
Summary: When a scheme to kill the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen goes wrong, they are transported into the future, where they must work with six New Yorkers to save the world from a time-travelling madman with a century-old grudge against the League
1. The One With Phoebe's Feeling

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League.  
  
Feedback: I'd appreciate it.  
  
AN: For those wishing a time-placement, in the Friends timeline, this is set in between 'TOW The Lottery' and 'TOW Rachel's Dream', and in the League's timeline, it's set in between my stories 'Resurrection' and 'Legacy'. By the way, if this doesn't quite seem too good at the start, I apologise; I'm not very used to writing Friends fan fiction, but this idea was such an interesting idea for a story I couldn't _not_ write it.  
  
The One Where They Help Save the World  
  
"So," asked Rachel, looking very pointedly at Ross as the gang sipped at their coffee cups, "any idea where Emma picked up the word 'gleeba'?"  
  
Ross groaned a little, as he put down his coffee and stared at the mother of his child. "Look, Rache, don't go accusing me of talking about gleeba when she's around," he said, genuinely annoyed that she wasn't prepared to let this go. "I mean, I didn't even know what it meant until you looked it up in the dictionary. How could she have heard it from me?"  
  
"Well, who _else_ would use a word like that around her?" Rachel pointed out, her long hair hanging down as she leaned forward.  
  
"Ah, well, that might be me," Joey put in, rising to his friend's defence. "See, I was rehearsing for the role of a scientist in a TV show a while back, and, well, I did a bit of practice while I was looking after Emma at one time. I can't be certain, of course, but I think 'gleeba' may have been one of the words in the script."  
  
Chandler looked over at his friend with a surprised expression on his face. "You auditioned for a role as a scientist?" he asked incredulously.  
  
"Well, it seemed like easy money at the time," Joey said. "After all-"  
  
Phoebe held up her hand. "Can you just stop there, Joey?" she asked. "I'm getting a definite... vibe from something, and I'm trying to work out what it is."  
  
Ross sighed. "Pheebs, no offence intended to your beliefs, but does this really have any relevance to this situation?"  
  
Phoebe sighed. "Say what you like, Ross, but I'm really feeling something right now. In fact..." she said, as her voice trailed off. Then she shook her head, got up, and started walking.  
  
"'In fact' what?" Monica asked, placing a hand on her friend's arm. "Honey, what's wrong?"  
  
Phoebe shook her head slightly and turned to face Monica. "I... I'm not sure," she said, sounding slightly confused. "But I get the definite feeling that something's going to happen soon. Something... something...."  
  
"Something?" Chandler said, sounding rather curious by this point. "Would you care to specify, Pheebs?"  
  
Phoebe shook her head. "I... I wish I could, Chandler, but... I can't. All I know is... I- I have to go." Then she walked out of the coffee house and turned right, vanishing from the sight of her friends in a few seconds.  
  
The remaining five looked around at each other, until Rachel broke the silence.  
  
"So, do we follow her, or what?" she asked.  
  
Chandler shrugged. "Well, we've got nothing better to do," he said, as he got up. "So, let's go."  
  
Ross, Rachel, Monica and Phoebe got up and walked out of the coffee house, Ross leaving a few dollars on the table to pay for the coffees before he joined the others.

* * *

As soon as they were outside Central Perk, the group headed on down the street that Phoebe had walked down, moving fairly fast to keep up. It was rather late already, so the streets weren't quite as crowded as they could have been, but in New York, that was still fairly crowded.  
  
Fortunately, Phoebe hadn't gone too far from Central Perk; she'd stopped directly in front of a dead-end alleyway, with only various trash-bags and the bottom end of a fire escape in it.  
  
After looking over Phoebe's shoulder for a while, Monica finally broke the silence.  
  
"Uh... honey? What are you looking at?" she asked.  
  
Phoebe looked back, but didn't appear to even be surprised at their sudden appearance. "I don't know, Monica," she said, turning back to the alleyway. "I just know that _something's_ going to happen here soon... something big... and we have to be here for it to achieve what it's going to pull off."  
  
"'We'?" Joey asked, looking at Phoebe in surprise. "What's with this 'we' stuff? I don't recall any of us signing up for... for... for I don't know what!"  
  
However, before anyone could reply to that comment, the air in the alleyway suddenly started to crackle with brilliant blue electricity, as though something had short-circuited. Before anyone could fully process that fact, a massive glowing hole appeared in mid air, deposited six figures on the ground in front of the little group watching the whole scenario, and then vanished.  
  
After a few seconds of stunned disbelief, Chandler broke the silence.  
  
"So, did I accidentally take some of Ross's old tranquilizers without knowing it, or did you guys see that happen as well?" he asked, as he walked forward to look at the figure lying on the ground nearest to him.  
  
"We saw it," Ross said, as he and the others followed Chandler's example and walked forward to examine the collapsed figures.  
  
Looking up from her figure, Phoebe grinned at the others. "See? I _told _you something big was going to take place here!" she said, her grin almost wide enough to split her face as she looked around at all her friends.  
  
"Yeah, OK, you were right that something was going to happen, Pheebs," Monica said, as she crouched down to look at her figure better. (Curiously enough, out of all six of the unconscious people lying on the ground, only Monica's was a woman.) "But shouldn't we more be focusing on the issues of who, what, and why in our current situation?"  
  
"Which are?" Joey asked, as he looked up from the figure he'd run to; a man with a remarkably white face.  
  
"Who are these guys, what was that thing they came through, and why was Phoebe able to sense it?" Monica stated.  
  
"Well, maybe we'll get a better idea of who they are if we turn them over?" Rachel suggested.  
  
Nodding at that suggestion, the group turned their figures over.  
  
Chandler's figure seemed fairly athletic, and was dressed in a long black duster, a white shirt, a black waistcoat with the buttons undone, and brown trousers and shoes. His fair hair had the hint of curls in it, but they had nearly vanished, and his face was young- he could only be in his late twenties at best.  
  
Phoebe's chosen victim was a man, in about his mid-thirties, wearing brown trousers, black shoes, and a brown waistcoat, as well as a white shirt with rolled-up. His hair reached down to around his shoulders, and his face had several small scars on it that he appeared to have received in past fights.  
  
Ross's figure was somehow more disturbing than the others, mainly because his chest was almost totally bare baring a few strips of cloth that made it look like his shirt had burst apart somehow. Apart from that, all he had were black trousers that were slightly tattered around the bottom of the legs. His red hair had been brushed to the right side of his head, and his face had a slightly haunted aspect about it.  
  
Monica's person, the only woman in the entire group, was wearing along black leather coat, a black leather corset and collar, and black skin-tight leggings and boots. Her hair was dark red and reached down to below her shoulders, and was slightly curled although it almost seemed to be straightening out even at they looked at her. Her skin was milky yet flawless, and she had brilliant blue eyes.  
  
The person Rachel was crouching beside gave all the others a run for their money regarding their odd clothes; he was wearing blue-and-white garments and black boots, along with an ornate Indian turban. He had a remarkably bushy beard, and a lined, experienced face that marked him out as the oldest of this unusual group. However, the most noteworthy feature about him was a sword that hung at his belt, with an almost ornamental hilt.  
  
Joey's figure, however, was far more puzzling than any of the others. His completely white face and hands, coupled with his old-fashioned coat and hat, would make his stand out in a crowd anywhere by themselves, but when you looked where the rest of his body should be in the coat, there was...  
  
"Nothing?" Monica asked, as the group abandoned their figures to look at Joey's. "How does _that _happen?"  
  
"Maybe he's some kind of figurine?" Joey asked. "You know, the coat's supported by a metal frame inside it or something like that? Look, I'll just- YIKES!" he yelled, as he pulled his hand away from the middle of the coat.  
  
"What happened?" Ross asked  
  
Joey looked at his friend with a slight edge of panic in his voice.  
  
"This guy's invisible!" he said to Ross, in a voice that almost seemed verging on the hysterical.  
  
"What?" Rachel asked, leaning forward to look at the figure as she raised a hand to touch it. "Joey, be realistic, OK? Things _can't_ just turn invisi- OH MY GOD!" she cried, yanking her hand back. "I think I just touched this guy's dick!"  
  
Monica blinked a little at that statement. "OK, the disturbing mental image you just raised there is now gone, and I think I can better focus on my second question," she said, after a few seconds. "Namely, what do we do with these guys? Take them to the hospital or police or something?"  
  
"On what charge? Dropping out of the sky?" Chandler asked.  
  
"Well, being in possession of offensive weaponry seems a good place to start," Rachel pointed out. "I mean, my guy has this sword, Mon's girl has a couple of daggers, and I don't know if you've noticed it, but your guy _does _have a couple of pistols on him!"  
  
"What?" Chandler asked, looking back at the young man he'd been examining earlier. Rachel was right; there were two pistols, just visible under the guy's coat. He'd been mostly examining the guy's face earlier, trying to see if he remembered seeing it anywhere, so he must have missed them.  
  
"Well, that was... unexpected," he said, looking back up at his friends. "But it doesn't answer the question of what the hell we _do_ with these guys."  
  
"Take them home, of course," Phoebe said. "Well; your home, at the very least."  
  
The rest of them looked at each other in blank astonishment at that statement. Eventually, Ross broke the silence.  
  
"Um, Phoebe, is that really a sensible thing to do? I mean, these guys are _armed,_ in case you hadn't noticed?" he said.  
  
"They're not dangerous!" Phoebe smiled. "Why would I have a feeling that would lure me to people that could hurt us?"  
  
Chandler smiled. "If she was right about her feeling- and these guys suggest that she was- she _does _have a good point, Ross," he said. "We might as well give these guys the benefit of the doubt. Joey and I'll drop their weapons off at his place, so they won't be able to do any serious damage to us when they get up. Then we'll pick up Emma from Rachel's mom, get back home, and then worry about what to do next."  
  
Ross thought it over for a short while, and then sighed. "OK, you win," he said, sounding resigned to the fact. "But how do we get these guys home?"  
  
"Oh, easy!" Joey smiled, as he picked his guy and hauled him onto his shoulders, draping the guy's left arm around his neck. "We just walk with them like this, and claim that they're drunk and we're just taking them home to sleep it off!"  
  
"And we explain your guy being invisible and that guy not having his shirt, how?" Rachel asked, jerking her thumb and the topless red-headed man.  
  
Joey shrugged and, reaching over, buttoned the invisible man's jacket shut. "So long as nobody looks at his legs, I'll probably be fine," he smiled. "And as for Ross's guy, well, just say he lost a game or two of strip poker or something."  
  
Then he walked out of the alley, the invisible man draped over his shoulder, the others following on behind Joey with the other unconscious figures. 


	2. The One Where The League Wake Up

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League.  
  
Feedback: I'd appreciate it.  
  
Krisian Rose: Glad I could help you regarding 'Days of Thunder'; I'm sure that one's gonna be great! Oh, and regarding your theories about what will happen between the League and the gang, well, just wait and see... However, I can _guarantee_ Joey will use the 'How you doing?' line on Mina later on.  
  
queerquail: I made you laugh? Great!  
  
Crystal Nox: In her defence, Rachel didn't KNOW what she was reaching for when she touched it. But, glad you're liking this story so far; I was a bit uncertain about whether it would be any good.  
  
Sean Molloy-1: This soon enough for you?  
  
The One Where They Help Save the World  
  
"Uuuhhh..." Tom Sawyer groaned, holding one hand to his head as his eyes blinked open. "What the hell hit me...?"  
  
Then his eyes popped open as he sat up and looked around in amazement at his surroundings.  
  
He was in a large purple-coloured room, with two rather comfortable-looking chairs in it, along with a sofa that looked just as comfortable, set around a small table. He was sitting in one of the chairs, and Hartdegen was lying on the chair in front of him.  
  
The sofa was currently occupied by Mina, Nemo and Jekyll, although Skinner appeared to be conspicuous by his absence at the present moment. Then again, considering that he was talking about the invisible man here, maybe he was here somewhere and Tom just couldn't see him.  
  
As he looked for Skinner, he took the time to take in more details about his surroundings. The larger chair had a small glass table beside it, with a small white thing on it that he couldn't immediately identify.  
  
A large window was opposite him, showing him a view of a large building with several windows on it, but little else besides. Wherever they were, he wasn't getting any clues by looking out of the window.  
  
Behind the sofa, he noticed a small table with four seats standing in the centre of several shelves and drawers; the shelves in question were filled with all kinds of crockery. He also noticed Skinner was lying in one of the seats, his mouth leaking a small speck of drool that was smearing his face paint. He looked all right, but he'd probably have a sore head when he regained consciousness.  
  
There was a door down at that end of the room as well, which at least suggested a way out of this place if the need arose.  
  
Then he heard a groan come from the sofa. Looking at it, he saw Jekyll begin to stir into consciousness, and smiled a little at the sight. It may not have been much, but Sawyer was grateful that at least one of his friends was awake now.  
  
"Jekyll?" he asked his friend. "Are you all right?"  
  
Jekyll smiled a little as he heard the young American speak. "I'm... fine, thanks, Tom," he said, as he held his hand to his head. "Have you any ideas what..." his voice trailed off a little as he looked around at his surroundings. "Incredible..."  
  
"Yep, that just about covers it," Sawyer said, as he looked around at the large room again. As he looked, he noticed that there were two other doors behind him, but what he could see suggested they just led into a couple of bedrooms. There was also a wooden chest of drawers between the doors, which had a huge black contraption on it, with a large blank glass screen on it.  
  
Looking back at Jekyll, he noticed that the doctor was staring at the black thing with an inquiring expression on his face; evidently, the scientist in Jekyll was curious as to what the thing was, and was wondering if he'd be able to take it apart at some future date to figure it out. His scientific background may have been more inclining towards chemistry than technology, but he defaulted to being a scientist in these situations.  
  
"Save the analysis until later, Jekyll," he said, getting up from the seat and stretching a little. "We've got to...."  
  
His voice trailed off as he reached under his jacket for his Colt pistols and came up empty. Looking over at Nemo and Mina, he realised that those two had been deprived of their weapons as well; Nemo's scabbard was empty, and Mina's daggers weren't strapped to her sides either.  
  
"Ah, nuts..." he groaned, as he looked back at Jekyll. "It looks like someone stole our weapons. We're pretty much helpless if we're attacked."  
  
Jekyll groaned. "Dammit." And then a thought occurred to him. "And I don't have any spare samples of my serum on me..."  
  
Sawyer nodded a little as he saw Jekyll's point. If they couldn't find any chemistries in this place, or any chemicals at all, than Jekyll wasn't really all that much use in a fight situation.  
  
Therefore, they'd better try and wake Mina up, at least; if anyone attacked them now, Mina would be their best bet to hold off any superhuman opponents until the rest of them could find something to defend themselves with.  
  
Sawyer looked over at Jekyll. "You try and wake Mina up," he said, as he got out of his seat and walked towards Skinner. "I'll attend to our resident thief."

* * *

"Right," Jekyll said, as he reached over to shake the sleeping vampire's shoulder. "Mina?" he whispered timidly, not wanting to wake her up and end up pinned to the ground by her before she'd fully regained her senses. "Mina, wake up. We have a... situation here," he said, uncertain what else to say. After all, they weren't in any obvious danger, but this place definitely wasn't their home time, so who was to say what could happen?  
  
Maybe they should have thought about things more before they dived into that time portal...  
  
"Uugghh..." Mina groaned, breaking Jekyll's line of thought. The vampire blinked her eyes open, eventually managing to focus on Jekyll after a few seconds. "Doctor Jekyll? What happened?" She paused for a few seconds as she took in their surroundings. "And where are we?"  
  
"Well, I don't know the answer to the second question, but regarding the first, I think we were knocked out by the stresses we encountered in the time portal," Jekyll replied.  
  
"Seems a fair enough guess to make," Sawyer said, from his position at the apparent kitchen area where he was trying to rouse Skinner. "After all, the guy who came through that portal _was _wearing that suit; maybe it helped him cope with the pressures we encountered." He paused a little as he thought of something. "Come to that, how come I woke up first? I mean, I'm only human; surely you should have woken up first, if anyone," he said, looking over at Mina.  
  
"If I recall correctly, you leapt through while being held by Hyde," Mina pointed out, as she got to her feet and stretched, straining her chest forward in a manner that made Jekyll blush slightly. "Maybe he managed to protect you from the worst of the stresses. It could also explain why Jekyll woke up shortly after you did; technically, he didn't have to deal with the stresses himself."

* * *

"Makes sense," Sawyer commented, as his efforts to revive Skinner were rewarded with a slight groan from the thief. "You guys see about waking up Nemo and Hartdegen; I'd prefer everyone to be up and about before anyone comes into this place."  
  
Nodding, Jekyll and Mina turned their attentions to the League's fellow scientists, and began to shake them into consciousness. Meanwhile, Sawyer focused on getting Skinner back to full awareness, thanks to the oldest method in the book.  
  
Slapping him in the face.  
  
"Ouch!" Skinner yelled, as he sat up suddenly in his seat, nearly hitting Sawyer's nose with his forehead. Then he realised who he was looked at, and calmed down somewhat. "Sawyer? What happened?" Then he noticed his surroundings. "And where the hell are we?"  
  
"Best guess? We were found by someone at wherever that time portal dropped us off, and they took us to their apartment," Sawyer replied. "As to anything else, I can't help you there. We don't even know what the motives of the people who picked us up are; they didn't hurt us, which is a good thing, but they disarmed us, which is definitely not."  
  
"Well, m-maybe they just wanted to make sure nobody was hurt when we woke up?" Jekyll asked, as Nemo and Hartdegen began to wake up. "After all, how would they know we weren't dangerous?"

* * *

"Uhh... valid point there, Henry m'boy," Skinner said, raising himself to his feet as he pulled his hat out of his pocket and put it on his head; a ridiculous thing to do inside, but it made Skinner feel more comfortable.  
  
"So, what do we do now?" the thief asked, as Nemo and Hartdegen looked around in wonder at their surroundings- well, Nemo looked around in wonder; Hartdegen had already seen an even later future than this, so he wasn't quite as overawed as his friends.  
  
"Well, I'd recommend us waiting until however put us here shows up," Sawyer said, looking at the others. "After all, we haven't been harmed yet, so we might as well see who bought us here; maybe they'll help us out with our current problem."

* * *

Mina nodded. "A fair suggestion, Tom. And, I believe, one that we shall soon be testing out."  
  
"Really?" Hartdegen asked, looking at Mina curiously. "Why?"  
  
"Because I can hear someone outside this room's door," Mina said, pointing at the door that Sawyer had noticed earlier beside the table area Skinner had been sitting it. "Therefore, if they have hostile intentions towards us, we shall know very soon."  
  
The door swung open... 


	3. The One Where People Get Confused

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League.  
  
Feedback: I'd appreciate it.

La Fille de Belleville: Glad you like it so far; I hope I can continue to meet with your approval.

bb: That's the idea, so I'm glad to see it's working.

queerquail: This soon enough?

Krisian Rose: Things will get fun, or, at least, chaotic. Oh, just a couple of points; Skinner wasn't drooling on the table, just on his face, and Ugly Naked Guy moved out a couple of years ago.

Sean Molloy-1: I hope I didn't keep you waiting.

The One Where They Help Save the World

As Monica opened the door to her apartment, she noticed one thing instantly; the people they'd left there earlier were all awake now, or at least were waking up. The Indian in blue and the man with the scars on his face were still waking up, but the other four- the young man with curly hair, the woman, the half-naked guy, and the invisible (How that was possible Monica still didn't know) man- were all wide awake.

The four of them looked over at Monica as she walked into the apartment and shut the door, and she found herself wishing she hadn't run on ahead of the others to get back home. She would have stayed with the others, but she wanted to make sure that the… people hadn't done any damage.

On the plus side, it would appear that nothing was broken at the moment, although the… the _invisible man_… had a small line of what appeared to be drool running down the side of his face.

After a couple of seconds of quiet, during which Monica stared at all the people in her apartment while they all stared back at her, the invisible man broke the silence.

"Ah, good day to you, ma'am," he said, in what Monica thought was a cockney accent. He looked her in the eyes, and smiled. "Well, good to see average standards of beauty haven't dropped in the future," he said, grinning at her again in a manner that Monica guessed was meant to be charming.

Personally, she found it disturbing, but that was probably because of the man's pale face and invisibility.

The younger man groaned. "Skinner, could you possibly _not _try and hit on people while we're here?" he asked, sounding as though he'd had similar conversations with the invisible man (Apparently called Skinner, Monica noted privately). "Apart from anything else, if we're in the future, at the very least you could technically be old enough to be this woman's _father_." He looked back at Monica. "What year _is _this, anyway?" he asked, tilting his head to one side in a curious manner.

Monica blinked. Of all the questions she'd been expecting to answer, _that _hadn't been one of them. "Where are we?" Yep, definitely. "Who are you?" Pretty much what she would have expected to be the first question they asked. "What the hell happened to us?" She wouldn't have been able to answer, but she had been expecting it.

But, "What year is this?"

_Very _unexpected.

"Um… 2003?" she said, realising she still hadn't answered.

The entire group stared at her in astonishment for a few seconds, before the man with the scars got to his feet and broke the silence.

"Well… that was earlier than I expected," he said, looking around at the others. "It would appear we're dealing with a rouge group, in that case; time travel isn't known to the public at large at this point, so the machine must have been developed privately."

Before Monica could say anything about that rather confusing statement, the flat's door opened and her five friends walked in, Ross at the back carrying Emma.

* * *

"Mon, could you possibly not- oh, you're awake," Chandler said, realising that the mysterious group had regained consciousness while they were away.

For a while, the two groups just looked at each other, nobody quite sure what to say. Eventually, however, Rachel broke the silence by walking towards the young man with her hand outstretched.

"Hi," she said to the man, smiling brightly. "I'm Rachel Green, the girl you've already met is Monica Gellar-Bing, the blonde is Phoebe Buffay, the handsome guy's Joey Tribbiani, the geeky-looking one's Ross Gellar, Monica's brother, and the third one is Chandler Bing, her husband. You guys are?"

* * *

Sawyer smiled a little at the woman. He wouldn't say he was used to this kind of attitude from a woman- he would have expected it from Mina, but that was about it- but it didn't take him as by surprise as it would have done before he joined the League.

"I'm Tom Sawyer," he said shaking her hand before he turned around to indicate the others. "These are my friends, Mrs Wilhemina Harker, Captain Nemo, Mr Rodney Skinner, Professor Alexander Hartdegen, and Doctor Henry Jekyll."

He looked back at Rachel, and was surprised to see her looking at him with an expression of blank astonishment on her face. Looking up at her friends, he noticed- with some surprise- that they had similar expressions.

It reminded him of the expression on the faces of Quartermain, Nemo, Skinner and Gray after they'd witnessed Mina draining one of the Fantom's soldiers of all his blood. It was as though just hearing the _names _of the League was the most shocking experience they'd heard in all their lives.

"What?" he asked Rachel, curiously. "Did my name go out of fashion or something over the last hundred years?"

Rachel blinked, apparently bought back down to Earth by his tone of voice.

"You… you're called Tom Sawyer?" she asked, sounding like she couldn't quite believe it.

"Um… yeah?" Sawyer replied. He was feeling a little confused right now; what did his name have to do with anything?

* * *

"OK, so your name's Tom Sawyer, and you're hanging around with a bunch of people named after the _Dracula _heroine, a doctor who turns into pure evil, the commander of a huge submarine, a guy who travelled through time, and… I dunno _who_ the invisible dude's named after!" Chandler said, walked towards the young man. "What, your parents were all fans of Victorian literature or something?"

The man blinked. "Pardon… Chandler, right?" he asked. Chandler nodded, and the man continued speaking. "I think something's going on here that nobody's quite clear about. How do you know our names, for one thing?"

The scarred man coughed a little. "Ah, I can fill that one in," he said, as the rest of the people in the room turned to face him. "Do you remember those books mina gave you for Christmas, Tom?" he said to the blond man. 'Tom' nodded, and the man went on. "Well, those books are still being published in this era, but over time, people have come to assume they're fictional. You remember, I mentioned the fact when I first joined the League?"

"Oh yeah…." Tom said, before looking over at Chandler again. "Well, there's your answer, Chandler. Our parents _weren't _fans of 'Victorian literature', as you call us- we're the original characters."

"Oh," Chandler said, blinking a little at that statement. He looked back at his friends, and saw that at least they were as confused as he was. After all, what do you say to bunch of guys you never thought were real?

Ross coughed a little to attract attention. "Um, could I possibly put Emma down before we start to talk about this?" he asked.

"Emma?" Skinner asked, looking over at the palaeontologist with a curious expression.

"Emma?" Hartdegen asked, looking slightly startled at that statement.

"Who's Emma?" Mina asked.

* * *

"Oh… our daughter," Rachel said, deciding to take a chance and trust these people. After all, she'd read or heard of all the books these people featured in, and she knew for a fact that Tom, Mina, Alex, and Henry were decent enough people. Nemo and Skinner she wasn't sure about- hadn't Nemo attacked several ships and the Invisible Man committed murder?- but, given that Nemo had been civil enough in person and Skinner wasn't the _original_ invisible man, she felt fairly safe.

Just then, a thought occurred to her, and she looked over at Alex. "What's the big deal with the name 'Emma'?" she asked him.

Alex blinked. "What?" he asked. "Why should there be a big deal with the name Emma?"

"You reacted like there was," Phoebe put in. "Plus, you don't need to be psychic to see that there's something about that name that gets to you."

* * *

Sawyer coughed politely, drawing all eyes in his direction at once.

"Not that I'm against our groups getting to know each other, but we have a crisis to deal with at the moment?" he said, looking over at his fellow League members. He turned to face the others. "Look, we'll be perfectly prepared to answer your questions, but right now, I need to ask you guys one of my own."

"Which is?" Joey asked.

"In a nutshell, we have a serious problem going on at the moment, involving someone having tried to kill us back in our home time, and we're pretty much stuck here unless out friends at the other end can work out some way to get here, or unless we take out the guys who're trying to kill us," Sawyer explained. He looked over at the odd little gathering in front of him, took a deep breath, and then got right to the point. "Net result; we're stuck in your time until we can get back, and we need some assistance if we're going to make it. Will you help us?"

* * *

The six friends looked at each other, each one trying to work out an answer to give to this strange collection of people. Finally, Monica shrugged and looked back at the people from the past.

"Why not?" she asked. "I mean, if you're bonkers, we've got nothing major going on, and if you're telling the truth… might be fun."

* * *

Sawyer smiled. "Thanks," he told Monica. Then he became more professional. "Now, let's get down to business."


	4. The One With The History Of The League

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League.  
  
Feedback: I'd appreciate it.  
  
AN: Whenever I say 'the gang' I'm referring to the _Friends_ characters, just to clear that point up.  
  
Sean Malloy-1: Sorry; typing error. Won't happen again.  
  
Krisian Rose: Oh, Hyde will be showing up, but it'll take a while; Jekyll needs to prepare some of his serum first, since he left it all back in his time. Fair point about Joey; I'm mostly assuming that, at some point or another, he just picked up a couple of the books and flicked through them (Or he walked in on someone reading one of them, or something along those lines), and he might have gone to see 'The Time Machine' (You know, the one with Guy Pearce and Samantha Mumba) in the cinema. [By the way, thanks for the Slinky!]  
  
The One Where They Help Save the World  
  
"OK," Ross said, as he put Emma down beside one of the sofas before joining the rest of the gang; he and Rachel were sitting on one of the chairs, Chandler and Monica had taken some seats over from the kitchen area and were sitting on either side of them, Joey and Phoebe were sharing a couch with... Hartdegen and Nemo (Ross was still doubtful that they were who they said they were, but was starting to become convinced), Skinner and Jekyll had taken another couple of kitchen seats and were sitting around the opposite chair, and Mina and Sawyer were in the chair. "So, would you mind telling us who you all know each other?"  
  
"Yeah, that is a major question," Monica added. "I mean, you guys are pretty much all known about from the books, but you're from totally different books, different 'authors'... even different genres! How did you all meet?"  
  
"Well, in a nutshell, we were bought together to save the world, m'dears," Skinner said, scratching the back of his neck as he spoke. "Specifically, to stop some nutcase from kicking off a world war."  
  
Rachel blinked in surprise. "Save the world? You mean... you're _superheroes_?" she asked Sawyer.  
  
"Superheroes?" Sawyer asked, sounding slightly curious, as though he was trying the word out like it was a new shoe he wasn't sure about. Then he nodded and looked over at Rachel. "I like it."  
  
"Wait a minute," Chandler interrupted. "I get what Nemo, Skinner and Hartdegen would contribute in a fight, but what about you three?" he asked, looking over at Mina, Sawyer and Jekyll. "I mean, a guy who went around a river in rafts, some woman who once fought a vampire, and a guy who can turn into an evil midget? What good does that do anybody in a combat situation?"

* * *

Sawyer blinked at that statement- he wasn't used to people he'd never met knowing that much about him and his friends- but he got over it fairly quickly.  
  
"Nice point, Chandler, but your information about us is inaccurate," he said. "I'm a spy for the American Secret Service, Jekyll's modified his serum over time so that Hyde's now more of an engine of mass destruction than a snowflake that likes to start avalanches, and Mina... well, care to demonstrate?" he asked, looking over at the woman.  
  
Mina nodded, stood up, blinked, and then leapt up onto the ceiling.  
  
The gang leapt up onto their feet, "What?", "Ah?", "How?", and "Oh my god!" sounding in the air at the sight.  
  
Phoebe looked from Mina to Sawyer in a daze. "How... is she... Dracula?" she asked.  
  
Sawyer nodded. "Mina didn't quite recover from his bite," he replied to Phoebe's incomplete question. "She can control the bloodlust up to a point, and she channels all of the powers that Dracula's bite has given her into saving lives and working with us."  
  
"He is correct," Nemo said, looking at Phoebe. "I can assure you, you six can feel free to trust Mrs Harker with your lives."  
  
"Ah," Monica said, as Mina landed on the ground in front of her and sat back down in her seat. "Well... that's good. Yeah, good to know that we're helping someone _who drinks human blood_!" she yelled, sounding slightly hysterical.  
  
"C-calm down, Mrs Gellar-Bing," Jekyll said, raising his hands and standing up, trying to project a claming air. "You don't need to worry about Mina's appetite; she fed shortly before we came through the time portal. And even if she was hungry, I c-can assure you she won't drink anyone unless they attempted to kill us." He sighed. "Whom we may be encountering soon enough..."  
  
Joey looked up, his face suddenly as white as Mina's own.  
  
"Wait a minute; you're saying we might encounter people who want to _kill_ us?!" he asked, sounding absolutely terrified at the idea.  
  
Sawyer sighed deeply and looked at Joey. "You're not in any immediate danger, Mr Tribbianni," he said. "Anyway, at the moment, we need to fill you in on the more immediate points you need to know; namely, why we're working together."  
  
Monica nodded. "Yup," she said, looking around at her friends. "Don't know about you, but _I'm_ interested in the answer to that question."  
  
"Well, we were bought together by a man who claimed to be an agent of the British Government, to begin at the beginning," Skinner said from his seat. "The world was in a spot of bother thanks to some nutjob criminal called the Fantom, who was trying to start a world war by kidnapping scientists to construct various kinds of weaponry, and also attack countries while pretending to be another country. The only way to avert it was a secret conference of world leaders that was being held in Venice, but they needed good security, so the agent- chap who called himself 'M'- bought us together. His original team only called for six of us; me, Mina, Nemo, Jekyll, Allan Quartermain, the world's greatest hunter, and Dorian Gray, an immortal aristocrat. We ran into Sawyer when we were cornered in Gray's library, and he joined us after a little talk with Quartermain."  
  
"Wait a minute... You worked with _Dorian Gray_?" Rachel said, leaning forward to stare at the League. "As in, the guy who made a wish that a painting would age for him, rather than him aging himself?"  
  
"Oh, he got a book as well?" Skinner asked, smiling at first. Then his face fell. "Damn; you just can't outdo that bastard at anything."  
  
"No, hold on a minute here; you _met _Dorian Gray?" Chandler asked. "As in, you worked with a man who's probably still around in the present? A man you could just go to and ask for help in dealing with this crisis?"  
  
"Unlikely," Mina said, coldly. "Not only did Gray turn out to be a traitor, but I killed him later on in single combat."  
  
Ross blinked. "Not meaning to contradict you, _Mina_," he said, still sounding slightly sceptical that she was who she claimed to be, "but, if you're telling the truth, how do you kill an immortal?"  
  
"I showed him his painting," Mina replied. "The magic of the painting would only last so long as he never looked upon it himself, otherwise his missing years would catch up on him all at once, and he would instantly die."  
  
Chandler looked up, slightly surprised. "That's new," he said. "I read _The Picture of Dorian Gray_ when I was younger; they didn't mention that feature of his painting."  
  
"Well, things change over time," Sawyer said. "Anyway, we saved Venice from the Fantom's plans, but then we discovered that the Fantom was actually M- the man who recruited us." Noting the gang's stunned expressions, he smiled. "You're wondering why the Fantom would recruit us to stop the Fantom? Simple; in the war he was going to trigger, he intended to wield the greatest weapons of all. The power of the League itself."  
  
"What?" Joey asked. "You mean he tricks you into doing things that help him when you think they'll help the world?"  
  
Chandler rolled his eyes and looked over at Joey. "Either that, or he acquires samples from them that allow him to copy their powers?" he suggested.  
  
Joey shrugged. "Well, that too."  
  
"You guessed correctly, Mr Bing," Nemo said. "The Fantom had stolen Mr Gray's portrait shortly before we recruited him, and forced him to act as an inside man in the League. He photographed my _Nautilus_, stole a sample of Doctor Jekyll's potion, and acquired skin samples from Mr Skinner and blood samples from Mrs Harker. He then planted bombs on the _Nautilus_, leaving us for dead."  
  
"Would have been correct, too, if it weren't for the fact that I'd started sneaking around after Gray when he accused me of stealing Jekyll's serum," Skinner smiled. "Coupled with the fact that Jekyll managed to turn into Hyde and activate the emergency pumps, we not only survived, but managed to intercept M before he could sell off our powers to the highest bidder."  
  
"We even discovered his real identity," Sawyer added. "Professor James Moriarty, the Napoleon of Crime. I assume you know the name?" Looking over at the gang, he noticed the stunned expressions on the faces of Ross, Chandler and Monica, and smiled. "I see some of you do. For those who don't, Moriarty was the arch-enemy of the detective Sherlock Holmes, regarded by those who knew him as 'the Napoleon of Crime'."  
  
"Sherlock who?" Joey asked.  
  
Phoebe smiled and patted his arm. "I'll fill you in later, sweetie," she said reassuringly. Then she looked over at the League. "So, how'd that fight go?"  
  
"Not too badly," Mina replied. "As I have already mentioned, I defeated Dorian Gray, Mr Skinner planted bombs to destroy the base, Nemo and Hyde freed the Fantom's hostages, and Agent Sawyer and Mr Q. dealt with Moriarty." She sighed a little at that. "That was the only part of the attack that didn't go according to plan."  
  
"Huh?" Monica asked. "What went wrong?"  
  
"Quartermain got stabbed in the back," Sawyer said simply.

* * *

"Oh," Rachel said. What else could she say? She'd never read any of Haggard's books, but an old boyfriend of hers had once been a big fan of the writer's work, and she'd flicked through them a couple of times when she had nothing better to do. She'd never thought much of Allan Quartermain as far as his novels went, but Quartermain himself had always seemed a fairly likable character. "I'm... sorry," she said to Tom.  
  
"Thanks," he smiled at her, allowing himself a few brief moments of sadness before his face adopted its professional expression again. "Anyway, I took Quartermain's elephant gun and took out Moriarty before he could get away. We buried Allan in Africa, where he'd spent most of his life, and then decided to go around the world, no longer hiding in the shadows from it, but using our abilities to protect it. We met Hartdegen along the way, along with another man we call Terry Nator, and we have a couple of reserve members in the event of an especially difficult crisis." He shrugged. "Been going pretty well so far."  
  
Ross coughed. "Well, that's... interesting," he said, looking like he was more ready to believe their story than he had been at first. "But that still doesn't explain what you're doing here when you should have died last century."  
  
"Well, that's where it gets awkward," Hartdegen explained. "We're not entirely sure what happened ourselves. All we know for sure is that, for some reason, someone from the future- well, our future, your present- is trying to wipe us out. We were attacked by someone in a remarkably high- tech suit- by which I mean that it was remarkably advanced even for this time- who claimed to be 'an emissary of the wronged one'. We managed to defeat him, but it was a close call; one of our number, Terry Nator, was severely injured, and my time machine was badly damaged. With no other alternative, we took his time machine, and managed to use it to send us to his time." He looked around at the apartment. "Of course, the machine was destroyed when we arrived here, so there's no way we can use it to track down the mastermind of this whole operation."  
  
"But... you're_ sure_ you're in the right time?" Chandler asked.  
  
Hartdegen nodded. "Oh yes; I'm pretty sure of that. I had to improvise with the location we were sent to, since I didn't want to end up in his headquarters, but I left the date we'd be going to the same as it had been."  
  
The gang looked around at each other, as though trying to decide what to do now. Then Joey looked over at the League, a curious expression on his face.  
  
"So, what do you need now?" he asked.  
  
The League looked over at Sawyer. He sighed, rubbed the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb, and then looked up at the gang.  
  
"First order of business; we need your help to get some clothes," he said. "Secondly, we gather our resources together- weapons for most of us, some new samples of Jekyll's serum, that sort of thing- so we're at full power for the actual attack. Next, we need to work out who's behind these attacks, and what their motive is for them. Finally..." He sighed. "We attack whoever's behind this." He looked up at the gang. "We'll need your help for that last one. There's no way we'll be able to deal with whoever this is by ourselves; if they can afford to make a time machine, they must have several henchmen. Think you'll be prepared to go that far?"  
  
Phoebe raised her arm. "Um, actually, I'm not all that in favour of killing people- which I assume will have to be done, what with the guns and all-, so, could I sit that one out?" she asked.  
  
Ross looked over at her. "Pheebs, if these guys are killed, who's to say what it'll do for history?" he asked. "We're talking about people who went around saving the world; what would happen if they die before they should have? We have to help them any way we can." He looked at the League. "Let's go shopping."


	5. The One Where Rachel Flirts with Sawyer

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League.  
  
Feedback: I'd appreciate it.

Sean Malloy-1: A nice suggestion, but from what I've heard, someone else is already working on a story like that. You'll see it, but it won't be from me....

Krisian Rose: Might be worthwhile thinking about that suggestion regarding Joey having auditioned for a role as one of the League; I'll see what I can do. By the way, I apologise for the overlapping ideas thing, but it just... happened. Oh, and regarding the lengthy sentences thing, I guess I'm just so used by now to writing about events that happened last century that I forgot that I was setting this story in the modern day. Don't worry; I've fixed that problem (I hope). [Yeah, they are.] I will!

The One Where They Help Save the World

There had been a time when Rachel had been obsessed with shopping. She wouldn't deny that; in fact, back in the days before she'd moved in with Monica, she would have happily dropped everything if it would have allowed her the chance to go nuts in a shop.

But, looking at the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, she found herself realising that she'd been pretty easy to shop for, compared to how enthusiastic they were about the whole thing. It was like giving a knight every modern weapon imaginable and saying he could only have one; they wanted everything there.

Fortunately for her, Chandler and Phoebe had agreed to come along and help keep the League from acting too oddly in public, although they were still drawing stares from everyone they passed by. At the same time, Ross, Joey and Monica were arranging things in the apartments to allow the League to stay there for the duration of their time in the present, although they were hoping it wouldn't take long; they didn't want to attract attention by having a bunch of strangers in their apartments.

Rachel was still undecided on what they were going to get for Nemo to wear, and she was starting to think she might just leave him with what he was wearing; they could probably pass him off as a very devout Hindu, or Sikh, or whatever religion involved people wearing something that odd...

Really, it was Skinner, Jekyll and Mina that were giving them real trouble. Chandler and Phoebe were tracking down some clothes for Hartdegen, Sawyer, Mina and Jekyll, but it wasn't exactly easy; Hartdegen and Sawyer weren't especially picky about their clothing, Hartdegen being experience with this era from his trips to the future and Sawyer just being a very adaptable kind of guy, but Jekyll claimed he felt awkward in anything other than his own outfit, and Mina was mostly too shaken by the styles of the time to decide what she wanted for herself.

And as for Skinner...

Well, Rachel didn't even want to _try _to go there. When they started going through the shop, he flatly refused to wear anything if he couldn't get it off quickly in a combat situation, which would have meant that he would just have worn his coat all the way through the day, which would probably have ruined everything before it got started.

Eventually, Rachel had managed to convince that blending in while in public all the time was a lot more important than being able to go into actions a little bit of the time. Currently, he was changing into his new outfit that she'd picked out for him, consisting of a pair of black chinos with a dark grey shirt and black laceless shoes, although he insisted on keeping his original jacket and glasses.

"So, how's it coming along for Skinner and Nemo?" a voice said from behind her. Looking back, Rachel saw Chandler standing there, his hands in his pockets as he looked at her in an inquiring manner.

"Well, it took ages to convince Skinner to try anything, but I finally found something he'd be prepared to try on," Rachel replied. "As for Nemo, well, I'm thinking it might be easier to just leave him with what he's got; I mean, whatever he wears, the beard is going to make him stand out in a crowd."

"Yeah, and I don't see him taking the turban off anytime soon," Chandler said. "Maybe we could just, I dunno, claim he's a very devout member of some obscure religion that insists he dress like that all the time?"

Rachel nodded. "That could work," she said. Then she realised something. "Hey, where's Phoebe gone?"

"Oh, she headed off to help Jekyll find a decent shirt," Chandler replied. "He's prepared to try wearing jeans and trainers, but he'll only wear a shirt on top of everything else. I think he wants to try and maintain a professional appearance of some kind; you know, look a bit like a doctor?"

Rachel nodded. "Yeah, I think I get what he's saying. By the way, have you seen the other League members anywhere?"

"Well, Mina found an outfit that she liked, and Sawyer and Hartdegen found something good as well. Last I saw Nemo, he was looking around the electronics section, and I haven't seen Skinner for a while." Chandler smiled a little at that comment. "Of course, given that the man is _invisible_, he could be right in front of me and I wouldn't know..."

"He's not," Rachel replied. "As I told you, I found him a decent outfit and he's changing over... there," she said, indicating one of the changing rooms off to her left. "By the way, you mentioned that Tom, Mina and Alex found something they liked? Where are they changing?"

"Well, evidently you haven't been paying much attention to everything around you, or you'd know they were in those changing rooms as well." Chandler sighed and looked up at the roof. "You know, I never thought I'd be helping anyone do some shopping on this scale; for me, it's always in, get something, and go."

"And, of course, there's the little factor that we're helping people who saved the _world _over a century ago?" Rachel asked casually.

"Well, that too," Chandler shrugged. Then someone tapped the two friends on the shoulder. They turned around...

* * *

"How do I look?" Sawyer asked, scratching the back of his neck as he looked at his new friends.

"Nice," Rachel commented, looking him up and down with noticeable approval. Sawyer was dressed in a pair of jeans, white Addidas trainers, a dark blue t-shirt, and a brown leather jacket, under which he was wearing his Colts in their holsters. "How're the others doing?"

"Oh, they say they're doing fine; at least, Hartdegen and Mina are coping," Sawyer replied, as he sat down beside Rachel and Chandler. It was funny, really; he'd barely even met these guys, and he was already finding it easy to talk to them about things. "I don't know where the others are, though."

* * *

"Oh, Skinner's changing already, Nemo's wandering around the electronics area, and Phoebe's helping Jekyll pick out a decent shirt," Rachel replied, smiling at the attractive young man as he sat on the edge of the seat. She knew there were some rather good reasons she _shouldn't _flirt with this guy- the fact that he was technically almost a century older than she was, for one thing- but that didn't mean she couldn't have a little fun, right?

Besides, the guy was so dashing that she figured it would be a crime _not _to flirt with him...

"You know, that reminds me," Sawyer said, breaking Rachel's train of thought. "What did you get for Nemo to wear? I can't imagine he'd be very willing to change around that much."

"Oh, we're thinking of just leaving him in what he's got," Chandler said. "For a cover story, I was thinking we'd just say he's a very, very, _very _devout member of... some obscure religion that nobody knows anything about baring the fact that it's Indian."

* * *

"Could work," Sawyer shrugged, and glanced over at the two of them. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Rachel replied, looking back at Sawyer.

"After we questioned you guys about yourselves, it's only fair you should ask us," Chandler added. "So, what do you want to ask us?"

"Well... care to give me a bit of background on you guys?" Sawyer asked. "I mean, you all know about the pasts of at least _some _of us, but we know 'zip-doodly-squat', as Skinner might say, about you six."

Rachel and Chandler looked at each other, shrugged, and turned to face Sawyer.

"Fair enough," Chandler replied. "In a nutshell, Ross and Monica knew each other first, being brother and sister, and Rachel was Monica's best friend back in her early schooldays. I met Ross in college, and Monica took Phoebe off the streets, since she'd... run away from home after her mother killed herself."

"Couldn't her father have taken care of her?" Sawyer asked.

"No, he left her when she was only a baby," Chandler replied. "Her mother had basically just gotten married a bunch of times, turned to drugs, and then killed herself when Phoebe was thirteen. She was on the streets for some years until Monica took her off and helped her get her life started again.

"Geez..." Sawyer said, sighing loudly. He couldn't imagine having to deal with that; he may have lost his parents himself, but at least it had been from natural causes. Besides, he'd had Aunt Polly to take him in afterwards. "That's tough. That is _really _tough."

"Yeah..." Rachel commented. "She doesn't talk about it much, but it had a still-noticeable effect on her; whenever the subject of her parents comes up, she gets a lot less... cheery, than she is normally."

"Ah," Sawyer said, unsure what else to say. "And... Joey?"

"Oh, he just replied to my request for a roommate a few years ago," Chandler replied. "We quickly became friends, and, well, there you are. We all get along well, although there's been a couple of problems now and again."

"Such as?" Sawyer asked.

"Oh, you know.... Little things," Rachel replied. "Nothing major, baring a couple of things, mostly involving our relationships."

"Relationships?" Sawyer asked, a grin on his face. "It's a hundred years on from my time and people still have relationship issues? I would have thought they were past that difficulty by now!"

"Well, we haven't," Chandler replied. "Of course, it's mostly been problems involving two people loving the same person; me falling for Joey's girlfriend, him and Ross dating the same girl, Rachel and Ross having a kid... you know, your everyday sort of problems."

"Everyday?" Sawyer said, sounding a little surprised. "Hello; I'm from last century? In my time, it was concerned unusual to _have _a kid if you weren't married!"

Rachel blinked and then chuckled.

"Sorry; I forgot about the whole 'Tom's from the past' thing," she said, in answer to Sawyer and Chandler's baffled looks. She turned to look at Sawyer. "It was just a one-night stand thing; Ross and I were preparing the invitations for Monica and Chandler's wedding, and, somehow, we ended up... sleeping together. Well, hey; he was desperate for sex, and I was just feeling a little lonely, so... things happen, and I ended up pregnant."

"I see..." Sawyer said, looking over at Rachel with a curious expression.

"Of course, given that they used to date, it's not as big a deal as it could have been," Chandler added. "Plus, there's been a couple of moments between them following Emma's birth, so, you know, it's been a complicated time for their relationship."

"Really?" Sawyer said, smiling at Rachel. "Well, hey, hope things work out for you and Ross; can't be easy being a single parent."

Rachel looked over at him with a slightly annoyed expression on her face, and drew her fingers across her mouth to try and make him shut up. Chandler looked over at her with some suspicion, and then enlightenment dawned.

"Oh my-" he began, but then Sawyer interrupted.

"Hey, don't mind if I just go off and find Nemo and Jekyll, do you?" he asked. "I mean, it's been nice talking to you guys and all, but I need to make sure that the others are OK; the sooner we get everything together, the better."

* * *

"Sure, go ahead," Rachel said absentmindedly, smiling at him as he got up and began to walk away. She started to get up and follow him, but Chandler grabbed her arm before she could get up.

"What the hell are you doing?" he hissed, his eyes constantly flicking towards Sawyer to see if he was out of earshot yet.

"What?" Rachel asked. "Aren't I allowed to flirt with a cute guy?"

"Not when the guy in question is technically old enough to be your _great_- grandfather!" Chandler replied, raising his voice to normal volume as Sawyer moved out of range. "Rachel, he died before you were even born! Either that, or he died shortly _after _you were born! That does _not _make for a good relationship! Just... cut out the flirting, OK?"

"OK," Rachel said, in an exasperated tone of voice that suggested to Chandler that she wouldn't stop trying to flirt with Tom Sawyer for a while yet.

"I mean it!" he hissed at her. He couldn't believe this; a potential crisis on their hands, working with some of the greatest literary characters from the Victorian era, and Rachel was trying to _flirt _with one of them! "Just cut out the flirting before something bad-"

The sound of gunfire tore through the shopping centre.


	6. The One Where They're Under Attack

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League.  
  
Feedback: I'd appreciate it.

Elenrod: Glad you liked the chapter (Oh, and I WON'T kill you for not liking 'Friends'- different folks, different strokes, after all). But, glad to hear you'll be checking the story out; I could use all the reviews I can get.

Sean Malloy-1: Hope I didn't keep you waiting

Queerquail: Nah, you didn't pressure me too much for the update- or, if you did, I didn't notice it. Don't worry; as you can see, I'm not going to leave the story hanging there.

elven-emma: Glad to hear you're enjoying this fic, but if it's too much to take in late at night, do yourself a favour; go to sleep and read it in the morning. I'm not going to mind whether you read it all in one go or if you take your time about it.

Krisian Rose: Eh, so long as you realise I updated, I'm not particularly fussy about when you review this. Glad you liked the 'zip-doodly-squat' thing, and I'll keep the college comment in mind. Oh, and I ASSURE you the guy attacking the shopping centre here is not a random criminal like in your fic; he's connected to the organisation that attacked the League in the first place. Oh, and it's good to see that the Tom/Rachel thing is working out well.

galabalesh: _That _is putting it mildly.

AN: Just wanted to make sure everyone's clear on something; when I jump from one group of people to another, I'll be starting when each separate group of people heard the gunfire that was at the end of the last chapter.

The One Where They Help Save the World

As soon as the gunfire started, Chandler grabbed Rachel by the shoulders and pulled her down off the bench, kicking the bench in question onto its side as he dived down. It wasn't much, but it provided them with some much-needed cover from the gunfire for the immediate moment.

Rachel looked down at Chandler, who'd somehow ended up underneath her in the middle of the roll, and was now looking remarkably like a deer trapped in the headlights.

Deciding to try and lighten the mood, Rachel smiled and rolled off Chandler, landing on her back beside him.

"Easy, stud," she said, looking over at him with a smile on her face. "Grateful as I am, you're married, remember?"

"Hey, don't stop on my account!" a voice said from behind them.

Raising his head slightly, Chandler saw the white-headed form of Rodney Skinner lying beside them. He was dressed in black chinos and shoes, a dark grey shirt, and his customary pince-nez. His jacket was lying behind him, which suggested that he'd shrugged it off before crawling over to join them.

"Nothing happened, Skinner," he informed the invisible man casually. Then he raised a curious eyebrow. "And how did you get out here anyway?"

"Oh, the three of us left the changing rooms just a minute or two before the gunshots started," Skinner replied. "Last I saw of them, Mina had jumped up onto the roof, and Hartdegen had ducked to the side to try and find Phoebe and Jekyll." Just then, a thought occurred to him. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know where Nemo and Sawyer are, would ya?"

"We do," Chandler replied. "Last time we saw Nemo he was checking out the electronics department; Tom headed off after him."

Before Skinner could reply, a voice suddenly boomed out over the clothes department.

"ATTENTION SHOPPERS!" a male voice called out, apparently coming from a megaphone rather than the shop's speakers. "HAVING ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION, WE SHALL NOW ISSUE OUR DEMANDS. YOU SHOULD ALL CONSIDER YOURSELVES HOSTAGES UNTIL THESE DEMANDS ARE MET; NOBODY MAY ENTER OR LEAVE THE BUILDING UNTIL WE HAVE WHAT WE WANT. WE HAVE MEN ON EVERY FLOOR, SO YOU CANNOT SNEAK DOWN TO ANOTHER EXIT WHEN WE ARE NOT LOOKING; THE REST OF OUR MEN WILL FIND YOU. YOU MAY LEAVE IN SAFETY, SO LONG AS YOU HAND OVER THE GROUP WHO CALL THEMSELVES 'THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN'! IF THE LEAGUE FAILS TO RESPOND TO THIS COMMAND IN HALF AN HOUR, WE AND OUR OTHER GROUPS IN THIS BUILDING SHALL START KILLING OUR HOSTAGES UNTIL THE LEAGUE TURN THEMSELVES IN. THAT IS ALL."

Chandler, Rachel and Skinner looked over at each other in horror.

"They know you're here?" Rachel hissed at Skinner. "How?"

"Well, these guys have mastered time travel; who's to say they didn't hack into security cameras of the clothes shops of New York?" Chandler pointed out. "After all," he said, turning his head to look over at Skinner, "they _must_ have known that you guys would need modern clothes if you were going to stand a chance of blending in; it was more a question of when rather than if."

"Well, as good as that is, we need to cover the obvious question; what the hell do we do now?" Rachel asked, looking around at her two friends. "I mean, we can't let the League hand themselves over, but we also can't let anyone _die_."

"Right," Skinner whispered, as he took his glasses off, pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket, and rubbed his head all over with the handkerchief while remaining as close to the ground as he could. Eventually, his head and neck were totally invisible, and he started undoing his shirt buttons.

"Um... Skinner?" What are you doing?" Chandler asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" a voice said from the area which appeared to be Skinner's head. "We know for a _fact _that some of the people holding us hostage are near us, so I'm just cleaning my head up so I can look and see if I can get an approximate head-count. Once we have that, our next move should be _easy_."

As he spoke, he stuck his invisible head over the top of the bench, ducking down again after only a couple of minutes.

"Three men, each wearing what looks like a sock over their heads and dressed all in black," he informed Chandler and Rachel. "They're carrying some rather large guns at their sides, but each man only has one gun each; doubt they were expecting much resistance."

"They're not going to get much anyway!" Rachel hissed. "The last time I checked, Tom was the only one of you guys with a gun on him, and nobody else will be able to get in close enough to those guys before they shoot you!"

"Never say never," Skinner smiled, as he began to undo the last buttons on his shirt. "Just let me get undressed, and then..." He smiled. "They're going down."

* * *

When the gunfire started, Sawyer was about halfway to the electronics department, and had only just seen the distinctive blue of Nemo's turban. However, once he heard the sounds of bullets flying towards him, he did the only thing he really could; he dived down to the ground and whipped one of his Colts out of its holsters.

Looking around, he heard all the demands made by the gunmen, and groaned. All this effort, all the terror they were inflicting on innocent people... was just to find the _League_?! Whoever they were dealing with here, the League must have _really _ticked them off!

He quickly decided that he had two options as to what his next move could be right now; he could either tackle the gunmen on his own and hope for the best, or he could track down Nemo and then make a plan as to what to do next.

He decided on the second. After all, one was good, but with Nemo helping him, at least they'd have a slightly better chance at tackling these guys. Besides, he'd probably need Nemo's help in working out the capabilities of the weapons these guys were packing; he wasn't much good at the science aspect of things.

With this in mind, Sawyer, crouching as close to the ground as he possibly could, began to slowly make his way towards the electronics area, his eyes constantly scanning the ground for any sign of Nemo's distinctive brown leather gold-tipped boots.

* * *

"So, Henry," Phoebe asked, as her unexpected new friend changed in a cubicle she'd managed to find for him, "how's the outfit?"

"Oh..." Jekyll replied, as though he'd almost forgotten that she was outside. "Well, it's, um, comfortable enough, but I feel a bit, well..."

"Awkward?" Phoebe asked.

"How did you guess?" Jekyll asked.

Phoebe smiled. "I'm psychic, Doctor J.," she replied, smiling a little at the nickname she'd just given him off the top of her head. "I can guess what _anyone's _thinking under-"

Then gunshots tore through the air. Phoebe screamed and dived to the ground, as she heard a door open and someone fall to the ground beside her.

Glancing in the direction of the thump, Phoebe saw that it was Doctor Jekyll, dressed in jeans, black trainers, and a dark blue long-sleeved shirt. She briefly found herself thinking that he looked rather cute in that outfit, but shook that thought off; if she didn't focus on the topic at hand, her only chance to flirt with him would be in her next life.

"Did you see anything?" she asked Jekyll, indicating the approximate direction that the gunshots had come from.

"No," Jekyll replied. "I'm sorry, but-"

"Sshh!" Phoebe hissed, as a booming voice began to sound over the top of the clothes racks. It sounded like someone was issuing demands...

After only a few minutes, the voice had stopped speaking, and Jekyll looked over at Phoebe, fear and horror scrabbling for dominance on his face.

"They're looking for _me_..." he whispered.

Phoebe shook her head. "They're looking for the League," she stated simply. "You're just part of the package." She looked around herself, trying to decide on a plan, before glancing towards Jekyll. "Any chance you could just, I dunno, Hulk out and attack these guys?"

"What out?" Jekyll asked, confused.

Phoebe looked confused for a few seconds, and then shook her head.

"Sorry; I forgot you're not all that aware of pop culture in this era," she said. "The Hulk's a character from comics in this era, who's basically a mass of muscle that turns into a normal human whenever he calms down. I was just wondering if you could turn into Hyde for a few minutes so we could handle these guys?"

Jekyll blinked briefly, and then shook his head.

"No, I can't," he explained. "I don't know what you know of me from fiction, but I can only turn into Hyde if I drink my serum- if I don't have it, the best I can do is allow Hyde a little more freedom to control my body than he has normally." He looked around himself, trying to see if he could see any of the other League members crawling around the ground. Seeing nothing, he looked over in Phoebe's direction.

"We'd better try and find some of the others," he whispered, glancing around the coat- racks as though he expected the gunmen to jump him any second. "Right now, we don't have that much of a chance by ourselves; the more of us there are, the better."

"OK then," Phoebe said, looking around herself as well before lowering her voice and whispering at Jekyll. "On my word, crawl along the ground towards the changing rooms over there; that was where the rest of you guys were changing, so we should run into them there if we're going to find them anywhere. Once we have them, we can come up with a plan, right?"

Jekyll nodded and turned around to face the pathway towards the changing rooms.

Phoebe crawled up alongside him, looked over at him, and then, to Jekyll's surprise, kissed him lightly on the cheek. When Jekyll looked over at her in surprise, Phoebe just smiled at him.

"Just for luck," she explained simply. "I read it in a book once."

Jekyll blinked a little in surprise, but then smiled and placed a hand briefly on Phoebe's shoulder.

"Thank you," he said.

Then the two of them ducked down and ran through the clothes-racks all around them.

* * *

Mina stretched a little as she opened the door of her changing room after finally picking her outfit for the modern day.

She still wasn't quite comfortable with it- it was remarkable how much women's clothing had changed since her time- but it certainly gave her room to manoeuvre. She was wearing a pair of jeans, O'Neil trainers, and a long-sleeved shirt with a low neckline.

She looked over to her right, and saw the familiar forms of Skinner and Hartdegen standing outside their changing rooms as well. Skinner was dressed in black trousers, a grey shirt, and his customary glasses, while Hartdegen had selected a dark blue business suit with a light blue shirt for his attire in this modern day.

"Hey, Mina; niiiiiiiice outfit!" Skinner said as he noticed her, smiling broadly as he looked her up and down. Mina smiled slightly at the thief's almost boyish attitude; he may be a bit annoying at times, but his sometimes childish enthusiasm was a great relief to her.

"Thank you, Mr Skinner," she said, nodding at him in reply. "The two of you look god yourse-"

As the familiar yet unfamiliar sound of gunshots tore through the air around her, Mina responded to the problem on instinct; she leapt up onto the ceiling and grasped it with her long claws, glancing down as she gained a good grip.

She noted with relief that Skinner and Hartdegen had both managed to avoid the gunshots; in fact, Skinner had already run into Chandler and Rachel, and Hartdegen appeared to be heading in the direction of Jekyll and that Phoebe woman. Looking in the direction of the gunshots, she noticed with relief that there were only three of them down there, and was about to attack them before she saw one of them raise a large device that looked like a horn to their mouth.

After the man had issued his group's demands, Mina went over her options. She could tackle the three of them by herself- she certainly had the power to do so- but, if their demands were to be believed, they had men on every other floor in this place. The other League couldn't hope to take all the groups out before the half-hour time limit was up...

But Mina could manage it.

At least, she'd manage to take down a couple of other groups by herself. She was fairly certain that the League would tackle the groups on the upper floors after they took down the group here; going up would give them a better chance to scan the area before any of the gunmen spotted them. Therefore, she'd need to deal with the groups on the lower floors as fast as she could, otherwise someone could die.

She would never allow that.

Focusing for a few brief seconds, she turned herself into a dust cloud- an ability she was still working on, but her ability to achieve this state was improving- and drifted towards the stairs down to the next floor. If anyone saw her, they'd only see some particles of dust, if anything. There was no reason for anyone to think that this was a sentient being.

If she'd been capable of it at the moment, Mina would have smiled.

The time had come for a fight with their enemy on his home ground.

Except, this time, their foe had made the mistake of threatening innocent lives.

When that happened, the League got angry.

And these gunmen wouldn't like the League when they were angry...


	7. The One Where Skinner Strikes Back

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League.  
  
Feedback: I'd appreciate it.

Eowyn41: I will, I assure you of that.

INHM: Thanks for saying I put on you on the edge of your seat; I hope I can continue to achieve that. Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long!

Ardeths Deadly Ferret: Thanks for that; it's those little moments that make this sort of thing worthwhile.

Krisian Rose: While I wish you'd reviewed earlier, better late than never. Glad you liked the scene with Phoebe and Jekyll, and the Hulk reference was intended, I assure you of that. Don't worry; if the League don't 'kick tail' now, they will be shortly.

The One Where They Help Save the World

"Nemo?" Sawyer whispered as he crawled through the store's electronics department. A part of him couldn't help but be impressed at all the technology around him- some of the things in this place looked like they'd just _appeared_ rather than be constructed and pieced together by somebody- but the rest of him knew that he had to focus on the matter at hand. He could worry abut admiring the future's technology later; right now, lives were in his hands. "Nemo?"

"I am over here, Agent Sawyer," a voice whispered to him from his right. Sawyer glanced in that direction, and saw Nemo crouching behind a large black box that, according to some brief explanations given by Chandler, was called a 'television'.

Grinning, Sawyer crawled over to the television, getting back onto his feet to speak to the captain better.

"I'll assume you heard the demands, right?" he asked, jerking his head back towards where the gunmen were currently standing.

Nemo nodded. "Naturally, Agent Sawyer. I was contemplating attacking them myself, but with you here, I see I shall have to change my strategy to accommodate your Colts. If nothing else, they shall make this business easier."

"Yeah, just don't go getting complacent," Sawyer replied, as he pulled his Colts out of their holsters, idly twirling them around his fingers as he spoke. "Even when we take these guys down, we've still got to stop the gunmen on the other floors." He sighed and clenched his fists as he spoke. "No matter how fast we move, people are going to die..."

* * *

Nemo placed a hand on his shoulder. "Then it is up to us to ensure that as few people die as possible, Agent Sawyer," he said. He looked down towards where the gunmen were standing; they could barely be made out over all the electrical devices on display here, but he could just about see their heads.

He noted that they were wearing some kind of black woollen mask over their heads, exposing only their eyes and mouths, and appeared to be looking around this level of the 'department store', if he recalled Miss Green's name for this place correctly. He noticed that all of them were each holding two large guns in their hands, raised up to point at the ceiling while they scanned the surroundings. Evidently, they were looking for the League, and were ready to shoot them if they tried anything.

Therefore, they would have to make the first move.

Nemo looked over at Sawyer, and held out one hand. "Give me one of your Colts," he said.

Nodding, Sawyer passed Nemo the Colt in his left hand, keeping the one in his left for himself.

"Now," Nemo whispered, as he studied the men in front of him, "it would appear to me that we have two choices. We can either attempt to shoot them from here, or we can split up and shoot at them from two different sides. Which one would you recommend?"

Sawyer scanned the surrounding area, trying to work out if both plans were plausible or not. The gunmen were currently standing in the centre of a sort of crossroads of some of the paths through all the clothes and other displays, so they had a good view of the surrounding area.

While Sawyer and Nemo were currently out of their visual range in their current position, it was close enough for Sawyer to be fairly sure of hitting at least one of the gunmen at the moment, even with a weapon that had been designed with closer quarters in mind for its use, but he wasn't too sure if Nemo would manage to pull it off.

Glancing around, he noticed some fallen clothes racks lying down at the end of one 'path', for lack of a better term, just low enough for a man to hide behind if he crawled along. It would be risky, but it might just pay off...

And, Sawyer noticed with steadily rising excitement, there was a handy clothes rack just a few metres away from the gunmen...

He indicated the rack to Nemo, following it up with a brief jerk of his head in the direction of the fallen ones. Nemo followed his gaze, and nodded.

"You go," Sawyer whispered under his breath. "I'll give you five minutes, then I'll shoot, OK? After that, it's all down to you."

"I shall not fail you," Nemo promised.

Then he ducked down and began to crawl along behind the clothes racks, heading for the tipped over rack.

Sawyer set himself if a good position to shoot at the gunmen without them seeing him, and took a brief look at the clock that was hanging on a nearby wall.

Four minutes and forty seconds left until he'd said he'd start shooting.

It was going to be a long wait...

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" Rachel asked Skinner, as he finally discarded the last of his clothing (Rachel and Chandler hadn't been watching for the majority of it; at least if they didn't look at him, they could at least IMAGINE he was still dressed). "I mean, just because you're invisible doesn't make you immune to gunfire. One lucky shot, and, well..." She trailed off, not wanting to finish her sentence.

"I appreciate the concern, Miss Green, but I'll be fine," Skinner said, sounding a little like he was smiling as he spoke. "Besides, I haven't even told you the plan yet."

"Oh, you have one?" Chandler asked, sounding rather surprised at that comment. "I thought of you as a 'spur-of-the-moment' kinda guy."

Something hit Chandler in his left arm; not hard enough to make him yell in pain, but hard enough to still be pretty sore.

"The last time I dived in without a plan, I ended up with severe burns all over me," Skinner hissed in Chandler's ear. "And believe me, I _mean_ all over. You would _not_ believe how painful it is to have burns on your crotch, for crying out loud."

Chandler blinked. "I didn't need to know that, Rodney," he replied, before peering briefly over the fallen bench at the gathering gunmen. "Anyway, what the hell _is _your plan?"

"Simplicity itself," Skinner replied, sounding more confident now; it was almost as though he was glad to be taking charge for a change, rather than taking orders from somebody else. "I charge these bastards, knocking one of them down directly and hitting the other two in the chest. While they're down on the ground, you guys grab their guns and knock 'em out, and then we... we... take it from there?" he finished weakly.

Rachel sighed a little at the finishing statement. "Nice idea, Skinner, but are you _sure _you've covered all the alternatives?" she asked. "I mean, what if you don't take them all down? What if you do and you don't knock them out for long enough? What if... what if... what if you hit them and they fire at us before they fall down?"

Skinner gave a small 'Mmmm,' as though considering it, and then spoke. "Man, that would be unlucky, wouldn't it?" he said, his voice sounding slightly clearer, as though he was now looking in her direction. "Look, right now, if we don't come up with _something_, somebody's gonna die. Do you really want that on your consciousness? My plan isn't perfect, I admit it-"

"Not perfect?" Chandler asked the invisible man. "Skinner, this plan could be used to define 'not perfect' in the _dictionary_."

Skinner kicked Chandler lightly in one leg and continued to speak. "I _know_ that, Chandler," he hissed. "But, right now, we have nothing else to use, and time is of the essence. Now, are you gonna help me try and pull this off, or not?"

Rachel groaned. When Skinner put it like that...

"OK, OK, we'll go through with it," she said, exasperatedly. "Just... get going already, willya?"

* * *

"Gladly," Skinner smiled at her. He was aware that it was pretty pointless, given that she'd never see it without his greasepaint on his face, but the thought was there, right?

He just wished she wasn't so much more interested in Sawyer then she was in him...

He shook that train of thought off before he could actually go anywhere with it. If he continued thinking about what could be, he'd forget about what was until it was too late to do anything about.

He tensed his legs, looking at the gunmen as they looked around the floor, most likely than not trying to see any of the League members. He made up his mind, then and there, to wait until they weren't looking in his direction to jump them; they may not see him, but he couldn't guarantee they might not see something move near his feet.

He waited five seconds.

Ten.

Twenty.

Thirty...

Nobody was looking in his direction.

Instantly, he leapt over the bench and charged towards the gunmen, spreading his arms out in a move intended to catch them in the throats...

And all three turned to face him, raising their guns as a small grin spread across their faces.

Skinner stared in horror at their eyes, noticing for the first time they were wearing small glasses under their woollen masks; they looked fairly normal at first glance, but closer inspection revealed a tinge of red around the edges.

And, since they were looking straight at him, Skinner was prepared to bet that the glasses somehow gave these bastards the ability to see him.

"Ah crap..." he whispered.

"Indeed, Mr Skinner," one of the gunmen smiled at him. "Now, we can do this two ways; either you get your clothes on, direct us to the rest of the League, and you all come with us now, and thus don't get hurt, or we kill you and track down the rest of the League then. Your choice is?"

Skinner swallowed, trying to ignore the fact that he was standing here, in the stark, in front of three guys who could actually _see _him. (His only hope was that they couldn't see him that well) He had to admit, the 'offer' they'd given him was a fair one; live or die?

In the old days, he'd have gone for the first one like a shot.

But...

Skinner groaned inwardly. There was always a damned _but _these days, wasn't there?

He wasn't the thief he'd been in the old days anymore. And that wasn't solely because of his invisibility; it was because of his friends. No, they weren't his friends; the bond the League shared went deeper than that.

They were practically family.

And he wasn't going to let these jerks take down his newfound family; if he was being honest, the only true family he'd ever had. Not as long as there was breath in his body...

He made his decision.

Acting on reflexes that would have made Mina look slow, Skinner charged forward, ramming the guy in the centre of the group, shoving him directly onto the ground. Skinner heard a loud crack as the man's head hit the floor, and knew that something had broken, but right now, he didn't care.

All he cared about was that these bastards had been prepared to use him to destroy the only people who'd ever seen him as anything other than a waste of space or a means to an end.

As far as he was concerned, anything less than death would be too good for these bastards.

He heard the other two men point their guns at his head, and grinned.

This may have been the end, but at least he went down fighting for his friends.

He only hoped these guys didn't know about Rachel and Chandler....

A loud gunshot suddenly broke off his train of thought.


	8. The One With A Battle Strategy

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League.  
  
Feedback: I'd appreciate it.

**Krisian Rose:** Yeah, funny coincidence that, isn't it? You can put the stick away; Skinner isn't going to die right now. And, yeah, I do enjoy cliffhangers; what good writer doesn't?

**Sean Malloy-1:** I don't respond to threats, Sean. You could threaten to stick me in Hiroshima before they dropped the bomb, and I STILL couldn't guarantee I wouldn't end this chapter on a cliffie...

**INMH: E:** I will, I will. Just... calm down, OK? **Soaring Falcon:** A little, but we were all there once, weren't we?

**wolfbeaver:** Calm down, wolfie, I'm going to write more...

The One Where They Help Save the World

Skinner blinked.

He was still alive.

The shot hadn't been fired at him.

But then, who...?

He looked up, and saw what had happened.

Somebody had shot one of the gunmen pointing their weapon at him in the head, knocking him off his feet, and his gun had been knocked out of his hand to strike the other gunman in the face, knocking him off his feet and sending him straight to the floor.

Looking at the collapsed forms beside him, Skinner took note of the bullet wound, took a quick guess as to where the bullet had been fired from, and glanced in that direction.

The familiar form of Agent Tom Sawyer, formally of the American Secret Service, was staring down at him, a Colt pistol in his hand, and jeans and a dark brown leather jacket on the rest of him.

And he looked remarkably annoyed.

* * *

"Skinner, _don't _try something like that again, OK?" Sawyer asked the thief, as he slipped the Colt back into its holster and crouched down beside where he thought his friend was lying. "Nemo and I had everything under control, and then you come _charging_ in and nearly get yourself killed."

"Geez, no need to sound like that, I'm doing my best..." Skinner groaned, as some creases in the gunman's clothes vanished and a couple of vague imprints appeared on the floor.

Sawyer sighed. "Skinner, get some clothes on, OK? I'll get Nemo and we can discuss our next move when you get back."

"Check," Skinner said. The imprints on the floor vanished, to be replaced by other, briefer imprints on progressively further- away areas of the floor.

Sawyer sighed and glanced down towards where he'd seen Nemo earlier. "You can get up, Nemo; Skinner dealt with the situation," he said, before looking back in the direction that the invisible man had gone. He looked down at the three unconscious men in front of him. "Too bad he knocked them out..." he muttered under his breath.

"Pardon, Agent Sawyer?" Nemo asked, as the regal figure of the Indian captain walked towards the casually dressed American spy.

"Nothing," Sawyer sighed, before looking over at Nemo. "We need to find the others. Hartdegen and Mina were at the changing rooms last time I checked, Jekyll and Phoebe were picking out shirts, and Rachel and Chandler were just... just..."

"Over here," a female voice said.

Glancing around in the direction of the voice, Nemo and Sawyer saw Rachel and Chandler walking towards them from the very direction that Skinner had walked off in.

"You were with Skinner?" Sawyer asked, as Rachel and Chandler joined the two League members above the dead, unconscious, and wounded bodies of the gunmen.

"Well, he dropped in on us when the gunfire started, got friendly with Rachel, and one thing just led to another," Chandler smiled casually.

"What?" Sawyer asked, looking in a baffled manner at his unusual new friend. "Are you saying...?"

"NO, he's not," Rachel said, sparing a brief glare at Chandler before turning around and smiling at Sawyer. "It's just Chandler; he occasionally makes little jokes like that. Trust me, you'll get used to it."

"Ah," Sawyer said, as he crouched down to look at the bodies of the would-be gunmen. Suddenly, he noticed something hanging on the belt of one of the gunmen. It mostly stood out because it was the only thing on any of them that Sawyer recognised straight away...

"A radio?" he asked, half to himself, as he reached over and picked it off the gunman's belt.

Nemo glanced over at the machinery in Sawyer's hand, and nodded.

"You are correct, Agent Sawyer," he said. "It is not quite as advanced as the radios that Professor Hartdegen supplied for us, but it still appears to be remarkably high-tech for this time period."

* * *

Rachel blinked. "What?" she asked, crouching down beside Tom to look him in the eyes. "How do you guys know what a radio is?"

"Oh, Hartdegen picked us up a couple to let us keep in touch with our American and British government contacts in the event of a crisis," Sawyer said, as he picked the radio up and started to examine it. "Now then, where's the 'on' switch...?" he asked himself, as he turned it over and over in his hands.

"What's up here, guys?" Skinner asked, as he strolled over towards the gathering in the centre of the room, now dressed in his earlier outfit of black chinos and a dark shirt, along with gloves and his pince-nez.

"Nice outfit," Sawyer commented, only half-paying attention as he continued to study the radio. "Anyway, I'm-"

Nemo clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Mmm?!" Sawyer asked, looking up at the Indian.

Nemo jerked his head over in the direction of two nearby coat racks at opposite ends of the small circle that surrounded them. They were both twitching slightly, as though someone was crouching behind them...

Looking up at Nemo, Sawyer nodded slightly. Nemo tilted his head in acknowledgement, placed his finger to his lips in a 'be quiet' gesture to ensure the others got the message, and then crept towards one of the twitching racks.

He reached out, grabbed one coathanger, pushed it aside as he thrust his sword forward...

"Geez! Point that thing somewhere else, why don't you?" Phoebe asked, looking at the blade as it hovered inches from her face.

"N-Nemo?" Jekyll asked from behind her, his finger stretching out his shirt collar in a manner that made it look like he was sweating. "What's g-going on?"

"Wait a minute..." Nemo said, as he turned around and looked over at the other coat rack. Walking over, he pulled it apart, to reveal....

"Ah, Professor Hartdegen," he said, sheathing his sword and nodding at his friend. "You can come out now. Mr Skinner and Agent Sawyer have attended to the gunmen; they are, at the immediate moment, no threat to us."

"Really?" Phoebe asked, as she and Jekyll clambered out of their clothes racks. "Well, good to hear that; where are- OH MY GOD!" she yelled in horror, her hands flying to her mouth as she saw the dead bodies of the gunmen.

"Yeah, sorry about that, but Skinner kind of forced my hand," Sawyer said, as he stood up and looked over at Phoebe with a sympathetic gaze in his eyes. "He knocked one of them down and cracked the guy's skull, and the other two would have killed him if I hadn't fired first."

"We-we-well... that doesn't make any difference!" Phoebe cried, looking at Tom with the beginnings of tears in her eyes. "Yo-you could have done something o-other than k-kill them, but n-_noooo_, you had to _kill_ them!" Then she turned around and, before anyone could react, she'd collapsed into Jekyll, her arms around his neck as she sobbed uncontrollably into his shoulder.

* * *

Sawyer looked over at Chandler and Rachel in confusion. "Not that I don't understand her reasons for it, but why's she having such a massive breakdown about what I did?"

"Oh, she has a thing about violent or unnatural death," Rachel explained, as Jekyll put his arms around Phoebe, apparently unsure what else to do while she cried into his new shirt. "I always attribute that part of her to her mother's death; she's a vegetarian as well."

"Ah," Sawyer said quietly, as he got back onto his feet and looked over at Phoebe. As she continued to sob and shake in Jekyll's arms, Sawyer walked up behind her and coughed slightly.

"Um, Phoebe?" he asked, sounding a little uncomfortable. "I, uh, I know this probably won't mean much in the long run, but I'm... sorry about what happened back there, and I'll... try not to kill anyone while I'm here... unless it's absolutely necessary. OK?"

Phoebe stopped crying, turned around, and smiled at Sawyer brightly.

"Of course!" she said, before turning around to kiss Jekyll on the cheek. "Thanks for the support, Doctor J," she whispered in his ear. Jekyll blushed slightly at the kiss, which wasn't helped when Skinner gave him a congratulating thumbs-up; he always embarrassed easily.

* * *

"OK, so, now that everyone's calmed down, what do we do about the gunmen?" Chandler asked, looking around at his strange collection of friends, sensing that Jekyll didn't want to make a big deal about Phoebe's kiss.

"Good point there.... Chandler?" Hartdegen asked inquiringly. Chandler nodded, and Hartdegen continued. "How are we going to stop these people before they hurt any innocent people? We can't take them all down in this amount of time, no matter how good we are."

"Oh, that should be easy enough to deal with," Sawyer smiled, as he held up the radio and began to look at it again. "Let's see, how do you talk into this thing...?" he asked himself, as he studied the radio.

"What, you've got a plan?" Skinner asked his friend, forgetting the Jekyll thing for a while.

"You bet," Sawyer smiled at the invisible man. "See, it occurred to me that this radio is probably here to allow the gunmen to keep track of the situation on the various floors; I mean, how else are they to know whether or not somebody else has found us? So, all I need to do is send a message to the others to meet us here, and then..."

Hartdegen finished the sentence for him. "And then we take them down all at once?" he asked.

"Exactly," Sawyer smiled, as he gave Hartdegen a congratulating wink. "And, for those that get away, they'll probably be caught by Mina-"

"You know, that reminds me; where _is _Mina?" Skinner asked, as he looked around the small group.

* * *

Rachel realised he had a point; everyone else was there, but their resident vampire was conspicuous by her absence. She glanced over at Tom, and was puzzled to see a small grin on his face, as though he was hiding a little secret.

"What?" she asked, looking curiously at the attractive young man. "What's the joke?"

"Oh, nothing much," Tom smiled, looking over at her with a bright smile that gave his face a certain appearance of almost childish glee. She briefly found herself thinking how good he looked like that, but stopped that train of thought; this wasn't the time. "Just, if I know Mina- and I should think I do- I think I can safely predict that we don't have to worry about the gunmen on the lower floors in this building."

"What do you- ah, I see," Nemo said simply, nodding a little as inspiration dawned in his eyes. "You are of the opinion that Mrs Harker has gone down to attend to the safety of the civilians on the lower floors, correct?"

"Exactly," Sawyer smiled, as he looked over at Rachel. "Remind me, how many stories are there in this building?"

"Eight," Rachel replied automatically.

"OK then," Sawyer said, as he adopted a more professional expression as he glanced around at the others. "Now then, we're currently on the fifth floor, if my memory's accurate, so that means Mina's going to be dealing with the majority of the remaining guards; it's our business to take out the other gunmen before anyone else can get hurt. Until further notice, we'll assume that each floor has three gunmen like they do here, OK?"

"OK..." Hartdegen said, curious as to where his friend was going with this.

"Therefore, I think our best chance to take these guys out is by luring them all to a location of our choosing," Sawyer explained, as he looked back at the bodies lying beside his little group. Then he crouched down, grabbed a couple of large guns from their belts, and tossed them over to Hartdegen and Chandler.

"What the...?" Chandler asked, as he automatically grabbed the gun and stared at it. "What are you talking about?"

"What does it look like?" Sawyer said, a half-grin on his face as he picked up another one of the weapons and looked it over. "You two are going to be helping me take these guys down."

Chandler looked down at the gun, blinked a little, and then looked up at Sawyer with a shaken expression.

"Um, my doctor says I suffer from bad grip when it comes to holding any metallic objects, along with a terrible condition that makes me feel ill at the mere _sound _of bullets, and I'm therefore excused from shooting weapons." He opened his hands and the gun fell to the floor.

Rachel caught it and held it back out to him. "Chandler, take the weapon and get to work, OK? If you're not going to pull your weight, then we have a problem. Besides, something tells me everyone else already has a part to play, right?" she asked, as she glanced over at Sawyer.

"Correct," Sawyer said, as he studied the gun. "Rachel, you're with Nemo and Skinner; you three will be responsible for dealing with any gunmen that try to get away from us. Try to take them by surprise, OK? Jekyll, Phoebe, the two of you try and find a phone or something similar so we can call for official assistance; just make sure you don't reveal why they're after us, OK?"

"Check," Phoebe smiled, her hand automatically going for Jekyll's at the news they'd be partnering up. He blushed a little at the contact, but didn't do anything about it. "Anything else?"

"Not that I can think of," Sawyer smiled at her briefly, before his face lost all its light-heartedness and he looked around at his friends again. "We've got around fifteen minutes before they start killing their hostages, guys. Let's go."


	9. The One With the Mall Gunfight

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League.

Feedback: I'd appreciate it.

**Sean Malloy-1:** No, there isn't, to answer your question about the cliffhangers. Oh, and everything will be updated soon enough, I assure you.

**Krisian Rose: **Good point about the 'Doctor J' thing; I just couldn't think of anything else, and thought it was a very 'Phoebe' thing for her to do. Whether the plan will work, well, you'll have to wait and see... (Regarding the penname thing, I just felt like changing it)

**INMH: **Just... try NOT to be on a sugar high next time you review, please. It's kind of disturbing... (Thanks for calming him down, S.F.)

**elven-emma:** I'll continue, I assure you of that... Glad it's going down well

The One Where They Help Save the World

"Time to allocate positions," Sawyer said, as he glanced around at the others. "Chandler, Hartdegen, position yourselves around the stairs, but try not to get too near to them; we want to give the gunmen a bit of a chance to split up before we start taking them out, otherwise they might get suspicious. Rachel, Skinner, Nemo, you guys spread out to the other entrances and exits from this level, so we're ready for any extra surprises. Jekyll, Phoebe... find a phone, call the cops, and stay down. Got that?"

The League nodded, and the others gave Sawyer the thumbs-up; Rachel even included a brief wink and a smile at the attractive young American.

"Good," Sawyer said, as he peered briefly down the barrel of the gun, swung it around on his finger, and cocking it in anticipation. "Let's roll."

Instantly, the group split into its respective parts; Phoebe and Jekyll heading for doors to the shop's fire exit, Rachel and Nemo heading towards the nearest elevators, Skinner sticking himself in a nearby bunch of hanging clothes, and Sawyer, Chandler and Hartdegen positioned themselves around the escalators from the floor above.

Glancing around, Sawyer nodded in approval at everyone's choice of positions, and then raised the radio to his lips, tapping the button that he hoped would open up a communication with the upper floors.

"Hello?" he said experimentally, trying not to talk too loudly into the radio at first. "Is anyone there?"

"_Curran_?" a voice said from the other end of he radio. "_Why are you calling us; you know the boss said to maintain radio silence except in an emergency_!"

"Which is what we've got down here," Sawyer said, trying to sound a bit harsher than before. "We've encountered a couple of the League members- the professors, I think- but they've gotten away and may have contacted the others. I'm requesting reinforcements to put them down before they're fully organised."

"_OK..._" the man said, sounding a little sceptical, but otherwise willing to believe Sawyer's story. "_How much backup_?"

"Everyone from the sixth to eighth floors would probably be best," Sawyer commented. "The vampire won't be strong enough to fly everyone off this building in the dark, and besides, I doubt they want to broadcast their presence in this time, so we'll want the lower floors ready to hold them back if they try to get out."

"_Right_," the man said. "_We'll be there in a moment_."

Sawyer terminated the message and looked up at the others.

"They're coming," he whispered. "Everyone get back."

Nodding in reply, Chandler and Hartdegen dived to the sides of the escalators, out of sight of anyone coming down them, while Sawyer dived behind some shirts that were hanging nearby.

* * *

They waited there for a few seconds, Chandler humming slightly under his breath while Hartdegen just stared at his watch, and then they saw a pair of feet appear on the escalator. Instantly they tensed up and looked over at where Sawyer was hiding. A few raised fingers told them everything; hold still until Sawyer gave the signal. Even Chandler realised the sense in that; after all, in his current position, Sawyer could easily see how many people were still to come down the escalator.

Four people were at the bottom of the escalator now. Chandler noticed that they were all dressed in similar clothes to the gunmen Sawyer and Skinner had taken down earlier; black clothes, black gloves, black balaclavas, each one holding a similar gun to the one he now held in his hands.

Six people. The group had started to spread out a bit more among the clothes racks, evidently searching for something. Chandler had never pretended to be a detective, but he was prepared to bet they were getting curious about why nobody had shown up to greet them.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine...

"NOW!" Sawyer yelled, sticking his gun out of the shirts and firing wildly at the gunmen, followed closely by Hartdegen and Chandler. However, whether the gunmen were wearing body armour, whether the bullets were duds, or whether the three's inexperience with this kind of weapon was more of a problem than anyone else would have expected, the end result of several shots were only two men down and another three apparently wounded in one arm or shoulder.

The remaining seven standing members of the group, obviously clueing in on the fact that they'd been tricked, instantly split up and spread out around the shop, a couple getting in a couple of parting shots that nearly hit Chandler.

"Fan out!" Sawyer yelled, diving out of the clothes racks, rolling on the ground until he landed on his feet, glancing back at his friends as he stood up.

Nodding grimly, Hartdegen shouldered his weapon and ran off, heading deeper into the mismatch corridors and lazes formed by the clothes. Chandler looked a little ill, but still seemed prepared to stick it out as he walked away, leaving Sawyer to shoulder his weapon and dash off in a third direction after the gunmen, briefly glancing in the direction of the others to ensure they were safe.

He was relieved to note that, although the League were still hidden from view, there were no signs of blood anywhere on the walls or among the hanging clothes other than around where the gunmen had been standing.

And talking of the gunmen...

He grinned as he noticed one of them standing a few metres away from him, his back to the young American as he looked around, waiting for someone to attack him.

Sawyer wasn't about to disappoint him. Raising his gun, he fired a bullet into the back of the man's leg, bringing him down with a brief yelp of pain before the man struck his head on a clothes rack and lost consciousness.

Glancing around, Sawyer was relieved to find that none of their opponents appeared to have heard him dispatch their comrade. Three down, six to go...

He just hoped that his new friends were up to it.

* * *

When the gunshots had started, Rachel's instinctive reaction had been to dive into the elevators, take it down to the bottom floor, and then run for her life, regardless of the risk of getting caught by some of the gunmen on the lower floors. _At least I'll have somewhere to run to!_ her panicked mind had thought to itself...

But she hadn't run. She couldn't. Her friends were in danger, both old and new, and they were counting on her to help them...

Plus, she doubted Nemo would have let her bail out of this situation anyway.

Just as she was starting to think that all their opponents had been taken down by the three gunners as soon as they'd arrived, she saw a couple of black figures sneaking around some nearby clothes racks. They weren't looking at the elevators yet, but Rachel knew it was only a matter of time.

"Nemo!" she hissed, jabbing her thumb in the direction of the gunmen. "Get out of sight!"

Nemo looked in the direction she was pointing, nodded at her in acknowledgement, and dived behind a few hanging leather jackets near the elevators. Rachel, following his example, ducked behind some similar jackets on the other side, out of sight of anyone coming from the direction the men were walking in.

As she stood there, frozen with fear, Rachel was already trying to think of what she'd do when the men got near enough. Hit them? Stun them? Steal their gun and shoot them? _Flash _them? (She dismissed that one straight away- no psychopaths were getting a peek at _her _chest) Which one, which one, which...

Then the men were right beside her, and she made up her mind. In a desperate move, unsure what would do the most damage, she kicked out at the man's leg, following it up with a punch to his face that hopefully hurt him as much as it hurt her; she felt like she'd broken her hand.

Looking over at Nemo, she was amazed at the speed he was moving at; despite looking like he was in his mid-fifties, Nemo moved with the speed and agility of someone in his prime, striking his opponent in the chest before flipping him over his shoulder to land against the wall, dazed and unconscious.

"Wow..." Rachel commented, as she looked at the unconscious gunman before looking back up at Nemo. "Nice moves, captain."

"Thank you for the compliment, Miss Green," Nemo replied, as he crouched down and removed the man's gun from his still hands. "Take up your foe's gun; we shall most likely need these weapons when the time comes for us to confront our foe."

Rachel blinked.

She hadn't been expecting _that_.

"What?" she said, looking at Nemo in confusion. "'When the time comes to confront our foe'? Couldn't we just... I dunno, ask the police to attend to it?"

"Unlikely," Nemo replied, as he slipped the gun onto his belt and got back to his feet. "If our opponent is connected enough to have developed time travel, confident enough to confront us in our home time, and capable of creating weaponry that can disable Mr Nator in combat, I doubt that the traditional law enforcement agencies will prove capable of stopping them. It is all down to us."

He looked up at Rachel, a quizzical look in his eyes. "And, of course, you and your friends, if you wish to remain?"

Rachel dithered briefly at the choice he was giving her, and then sighed.

"Why not?" she sighed. "After all, I'm already in further than I ever thought I'd be in this kind of situation; might as well finish it off."

"Excellent," Nemo smiled, as he looked back at the gunman lying at Rachel's feet. "Take his weapon and then help me find something with which to tie him up; he have little alternatives at this moment."

Nodding uncertainly, Rachel took the man's gun, slung it over her shoulder, and grabbed the man by the shoulders. As she started to drag him towards a nearby changing room, only one thought passed across her mind.

_What the hell are we letting ourselves in for...?_

* * *

"Crap!" Chandler whispered, clutching a wounded arm as he tried to hide amid some blue shirts against one wall. One of the bullets that had been fired earlier had apparently caught him in the left arm, leaving his suit covered in blood and his ability to use the large gun in his hands more than slightly hampered. The only blessing was that the wound didn't appear too bad; as far he could he tell, based on his limited experience of gunshot wounds, it had just grazed his skin and maybe damaged a muscle or something. Sore, but he'd live, he was guessing.

Now, if only he could find one of those gunmen...

"Freeze!" somebody said from his left, as something cold and hard was suddenly pressed against his head.

Chandler froze. "Ah, nuts..." he whispered again, raising his arms in what he hoped was a gesture of surrender to this guy, even with the gun in his right hand.

"Drop the gun, and turn around to face me," the man said, sounding far more confident now that he had the gun to Chandler's head.

Feeling like kicking himself, Chandler dropped the gun to the floor, turned around...

And, without even stopping to think about what he was doing, he lashed out with a punch that knocked the gunman to the floor before he could even pull his trigger.

Chandler grinned a little at the sight, but stopped smiling when a sharp twinge of pain shot through his left arm; he'd been so desperate that he'd lashed out with his wounded arm, rather than using his fit one. He was going to be sore in the morning...

Then again, at least this way he'd still be around in the morning.

Looking around to make sure the coast was clear, Chandler grabbed a shirt from the hanger beside him, flipped the gunman onto his back, and tied his hands together with a makeshift knot. It wouldn't hold him for long, but hopefully it would be long enough for the cops to pick this guy up.

As he grabbed the man's gun from where it had fallen, picking up his own dropped gun in the process, Chandler briefly spared a thought for the others. He could only hope they were all OK...

* * *

_There are times_, Skinner thought to himself, a grin on his face that would have made him look like a clown if he'd had his paint on, _when being an invisible man has its advantages. _

How else would he not only be able to find a decent hiding place to watch out for the attacking gunmen, but also get a chance to get an in-depth look at the lingerie that had become popular among women in the modern day?

Not that he was slacking off on his duties; no, he was still keeping an eye out for their adversaries, of course he was. After all, these guys were messing with the only real family he'd ever _had_, for Christ's sake!

But, well... a guy had to grab his little pleasures, didn't he?

Especially when it came to imagining what these things would like on his female acquaintances...

Then one of the gunmen passed by him, and he tensed up immediately. He'd hidden his rapidly-discarded clothes under a second clothes rack, so he knew they wouldn't be spotted, and he doubted these guys would think to check for him in here.

He waited, frozen stiff, praying desperately that the gunman would just pass him by without noticing him, give him the chance he needed...

The gunman's eyes passed over the rack and he began to walk away.

Instantly, Skinner launched into action, grabbing a nearby bra and yanking it shut around the gunman's head, leaving him unable to see anything but red. Before the other guy could do anything, Skinner launched a powerful punch at the back of his head, knocking the bastard down for the count, underwear around his head and his gun lying on the ground.

Grabbing the gun, Skinner checked it for ammunition before reaching over, grabbing a handful of underwear from the hanger, and tying the man's hands and feet together with it. A bit embarrassing for the poor guy, but, hey; it could have been worse.

As Skinner stood back up, he spared a brief thought for the others before he began to run deeper into the mall, trying to find either his friends or his enemies as soon as possible.

He was armed, annoyed, and dangerous...

And really pissed off at his fantasies having been interrupted.

* * *

As Hartdegen ducked underneath a nearby shelf, he found himself already running over which direction he should go in if he was going to find any opponents right now. He quickly dismissed the elevators and the fire escape- if he couldn't trust his friends to stop these madmen, he couldn't trust anybody.

He wasn't entirely sure about Phoebe and Rachel, but he knew for a fact that Nemo could hold his own in a fight, and as for Jekyll... Well, Hyde may do most of the actual work, but Jekyll still wasn't exactly a pushover in a struggle, no matter what else he was. They would be fine if the need arose.

Now, which way had those gun-wielding maniacs gone...?

"Freeze!"

They were behind him.

_To quote Skinner; 'Aw, nuts'_, Hartdegen thought to himself, as the man behind him started to speak again.

"On your feet, Hartdegen!" the man said. "Drop the gun, raise your hands, and don't try anything!"

Hartdegen swore a little as he got to his feet; this man knew who he was after just seeing the back of his head? They were dealing with a _very _well-informed adversary.

Naturally, Hartdegen had no intention of obeying the man's request. He may have been more interested in quantum mechanics and machinery than anything else, but his physics was still the way in which he had made a living for his past eight years. And, unless he'd forgotten something vital about the speed of sound, he was fairly sure that the man was only a few feet behind him, which meant that all he needed to do was...

He spun around, raising his arm as he did so, knocking the gun that had been pointing at his head to aim towards the ceiling, yanked it out of the man's hand, before ramming his would-be killer in the face with the end of the gun, breaking his nose. Before the man could react, Hartdegen had grabbed the gun by the handle, taken it out of his reach, and had kicked his adversary in the groin, sending him to the ground before he'd even finished the yell of pain about his nose.

As the man fell, Hartdegen grabbed a few nearby ties and bound the man's wrists and ankles together, giving the man another kick in the head for good measure. Getting back up, he turned around and walked back towards the escalators; if he was going to track down the other gunmen, he'd need to get started as soon as possible.

* * *

"Ah, there you are," Sawyer said, smiling as he finally saw the final gunman. He hadn't seen any of the other League members, but, based on the fact that he hadn't encountered any other gunmen up until this point, he felt he was fairly safe in assuming that his friends had succeeding in eliminating their adversaries; they weren't called 'Extraordinary' for nothing.

"You!" the man cried, spinning around to point his gun at Sawyer. "What have you done with my comrades?"

"Oh, nothing much," Sawyer smiled, spinning his newly-acquired gun around on his finger as he aimed it at his opponent. "At least, nothing you wouldn't have been perfectly prepared to do to us." His face hardened. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way, you bastard. The difference between them is simple; I leave you with the use of all your limbs if you choose the easy way."

The man chuckled, raising his own gun in the process. "Don't try to scare me," he said, barely able to contain his arrogant smirk. "We both know you're not going to kill me. Anyway, my associates will be here soon enough; I doubt you could fight them all off."

"He doesn't have to," someone said from the side. "They've all already been dealt with."

And Hartdegen, Skinner, Chandler, Rachel and Nemo stepped out of the shadows of the mall, each one holding a gun in their hands, although Rachel looked a little nervous at the idea of holding the weapon.

Sawyer nodded gratefully at his friends, before turning his weapon back onto the gunman.

"It's six weapons to one, 'buddy'," he grinned. "What's it going to be; your life, or your short-term consciousness?"

The man looked around himself, swallowed, and dropped his weapon.

"Wise choice," Sawyer said, glancing over towards Skinner. "Skinner, get his weapon. Rachel; find something we can use to tie him up." He looked the man in the eyes as his friends, moved to obey his requests. "Now then, would you care to tell us a little bit about your boss?"

The man nodded, looking slightly nervous. "I don't know that much; he never reveals his face to us. He always asks us to address him as 'the Lord', and keeps us blindfolded when he takes us to his headquarters. The only thing I really know for sure is that it's somewhere underneath East Broadway, but that's it."

Hartdegen looked over at Sawyer, who shrugged.

"It's more than we had," he sighed. "Thanks for the aid."

Then he swung his gun and knocked the man to the ground, unconscious and with blood staining his balaclava.

"Time we were off?" Chandler asked, looking up at Sawyer.

"Yeah, we-" Sawyer began, then noticed the blood on Chandler's sleeve. "What happened to you?!"

"Oh, this?" Chandler asked, indicating his bleeding arm. "Wild bullet from when we took out those first three guys. Doesn't feel like anything's broken; just think we should remember to get it out pretty soon."

"Right then," Sawyer said, as he started to walk towards the fire escape that Jekyll and Phoebe had headed towards earlier. "Let's go, OK? The cops are probably already on their way by now; let's just meet up with the others and get out of here; Mina should be on the ground floor by now."


	10. The One With Joey At Gunpoint

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League; I just own the bad guy.

Feedback: I'd appreciate it.

**Sethoz: **Firstly, great to get a review from you at last. Secondly, thanks for the compliments about how the crossover's working out; I was a bit worried about the whole idea from the word go. Also, the bad guy is from our present; at least, the fact that he's active in this era suggests he's from this time, which doesn't rule out the possibility of immortals…

**Sean Malloy-1:** I didn't keep you waiting too long, right?

AN: I don't know if Ross actually _has _a pull-out sofa bed in his apartment, but for the purposes of this story, can we assume he does?

The One Where They Help Save the World

"OK," Monica said to herself, as she finally managed to straighten out the spare bed in her apartment to a state where she was satisfied with it, "That's that attended to. Now, all we need is rooms to be allocated to League members…."

Then her face fell. "Unless _they_ haven't been doing anything…" she muttered to herself, as she walked out of the bedroom and headed towards the large window that gave her a clear view of the opposite building.

She sighed as she say her brother's room. Ross had apparently made a start on trying to organize the sofa to accommodate one of the League, pulling it out into a bed, but then he'd apparently decided to take a break and watch a movie, and was currently just lying on the bed watching a film.

Tutting, Monica picked up the phone and dialled Ross's number.

"Hello?" Ross said, as he picked up.

"Ross, get to work and get that bed together!" Monica yelled at her brother. "We've got a bunch of Victorian superheroes staying, you know; I am _not _having them think that the world's become total slobs over the last century!"

"Monica-" Ross began.

"Get to work!" Monica yelled down the phone.

"All right, all right…" Ross groaned, as he terminated the call at his end.

Looking out of the window, Monica was relieved to see Ross start to get to work on finishing the bed. Smiling slightly, she walked out of her apartment and headed out to Joey's room, knocking on the door.

"Hello?" Joey called out.

"It's me," Monica said. "Can I come in?"

"Please," Joey replied. "I wouldn't mind a little help here anyway."

Monica entered the room…

And blinked in surprise at the sight in front of her. Joey appeared to have grabbed the cushions from his sofa and chairs and stuck them on the floor to form a passable bed, with a pillow that Monica vaguely recognized as Rachel's at the end. He was currently holding his duvet above the cushions, and seemed to be trying to decide what way to put it down onto the cushions.

He looked up as she entered. "Hey Mon," he grinned.

"Um… hi?" Monica said, as she stared at him. "No offence, but why are you giving a League member _your _covers? Don't you need them for something?"

"No, see, that's the beauty of it," Joey smiled, as he tried turning the cover around another way to see how it looked. "See, the way I see it, I can… can…" He stopped and stared at the covers. "Wait a minute…" he muttered, as a thought struck him.

Groaning, he dropped them on the floor, headed over to a nearby cupboard, and pulled out a badly folded rug. "Will this do?" he asked Monica.

Monica shrugged. "Yeah, I guess," she said, as she walked over and picked up his duvet. "I'll dump this back on your bed, OK?" she said.

"Yeah, sure," Joey muttered, only half paying attention, as he checked the rug over.

Monica sighed as she took the duvet and carried it back into Joey's bedroom.

_It's getting complicated and we don't even know what we're dealing with_, she thought to herself, as she opened the door of Joey's bedroom.

* * *

"Dammit!" Joey muttered under his breath as he laid the rug down on the cushions and discovered it didn't quite fit. What was he going to do…?

"Try turning it around a bit," a voice said from behind him.

"Huh?" Joey asked, turning around to look at the source of the voice…

…Only to be met by a rifle butt in the stomach.

"Ooff!!" Joey grunted, collapsing to the ground as he clutched his stomach. Looking up, he saw four men, dressed all in black, pointing guns at his head and with balaclavas over theirs.

"Mr Joseph Tribbiani?" one of the men said, his gun levelled at Joey's eye. "Would you mind telling us the plans of the League?"

Joey went over his options, and decided to just bluff it out. After all, he had a reputation for not exactly being especially bright; maybe they'd assume he was being serious.

"Um, if you're referring to the Justice League, last I heard they were based on the moon…" Joey said, trying to sound casual.

"Don't play the idiot, Tribbiani," another gunman said, stepping forward to point his gun at Joey's shoulder. "We know you've met the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and we know you're working with them to take us down. All we want to know is what they're planning." Then he grinned. "Assuming they actually have a plan, of course."

Joey groaned. _This _was how he was going to die? At the hands of a bunch of guys who seemed to think that waving a gun in his face would make him talk? He was dim, but not _that _dim; these guys would just kill him whether or not he told them anything.

_Ah well_, he thought to himself, as he crouched there and waited for the bullet to hit his brain, _it's a more interesting way to go then dying in bed._

Just then the door opened.

"Hey Joe, we just-" Chandler's voice began to say, before he suddenly blurted out "Oh my god!"

The gunmen spun around, just as Joey glanced up to see Chandler, Tom and Rachel standing in the door to his apartment. It wasn't much of a distraction, but it was something.

And Joey wasn't going to let it go to waste.

Desperately, he launched a punch at the legs of the nearest gunman, knocking the man down to the ground, drawing the gunmen's attention back to him.

Simultaneously, he saw Tom and Chandler (_Chandler?_ What was that all about?) pull out a couple of guns and fire at the remaining gunmen as Rachel dived forwards and to her left, behind the cupboards and out of the line of fire.

It wasn't even really a fight.

In a few brief moments, the remaining three standing gunmen had fallen to Chandler and Tom's guns, bullets striking their shoulders and chests in rapid succession, every bullet striking one of the men; after all, at a metre apart, it's hard for anyone to miss their target, even if they're relatively new to a gun.

As the last man fell to the ground, Sawyer and Chandler threw their guns to the side, Chandler dashing towards Joey while Sawyer went back out to the hall to make sure Rachel was all right.

"You all right, man?" he asked his friend.

"Yeah, I-I'm fine," Joey said, slightly shaky as he got to his feet.

* * *

"What was _that _all about?" Rachel asked, as she got shakily up to her feet and looked over at Sawyer.

"We'll have to find that out," Sawyer said, as he swung the gun around his finger and slid in into his belt, underneath his new jacket, before looking over at Joey. "Good on you for knocking that guy down, Joey; gives us someone to question."

"Huh?" Joey said, before he glanced down and saw the gunman he'd tackled lying on the ground, still partially winded. "Oh yeah…"

"Exactly," Sawyer smiled, as he walked over, crouched down, and looked enquiringly at the man.

Just then, the door to Joey's room opened and Monica came out.

"What the hell was all that- OH MY GOD!!" she yelled in horror, seeing the bodies lying on the floor in front of her. "What happened?!"

"Attack," Sawyer said, looking over at Monica. "The rest of us decided to check up on Ross and Phoebe's apartments; we figured it would be best to make sure that nobody had tracked us back to you guys. Looks like our fears were justified," he added, tilting his head towards the gunmen. "Don't worry; Chandler and I took out three of them, and the fourth'll follow them as soon as I've gotten some answers."

* * *

Monica blinked in surprise as she turned to look over at Chandler, while Sawyer turned back to the body on the ground.

"_You _shot at those guys?!" she asked her husband sounding slightly surprised.

"Well, strictly speaking, it was the gun that did it," Chandler said, holding the aforementioned weapon up in his right hand. "I just allowed it to do its job."

"No, no, hold on a minute here," Monica said, walking towards Chandler as Sawyer started to shake the gunman slightly in an attempt to wake him up. "_You_ were holding a _gun_?! _You_?! I mean, you're not exactly a violent person normally…"

"Well, I'm not either, and look at me; I knocked a guy out recently!" Rachel said, grinning slightly as she thought back on it. "I was an asset in a struggle for our lives, and I loved it! I mean, WOW! Taking out trained professionals…"

"Albeit ones in the employ of a nutcase who wants to kill a bunch of superheroes who died almost a century ago for no apparent reason," Chandler added. "No offence, but he's probably got low standards of help in that case."

"Will you guys keep the noise down?" Sawyer asked, looking back at them. "I think this guy's waking up."

* * *

"Uhh…" the man groaned, as he leaned on one elbow and raised himself up so that he was almost sitting. "What the…?"

Then he saw Sawyer sitting in front of him, and groaned. "Ah, hell…"

"Pretty much," Sawyer said, as he grabbed the front of the man's shirt and hauled him to his feet. "Now then, just a couple of quick questions I want you to answer for me, got that? Firstly, how did you find us?"

The man coughed a little in pain, but grinned at Sawyer nevertheless.

"What're you going to do; kill me if I don't talk?" he asked smugly. "I'm not an idiot, you know; you kill me, you won't get anything."

"Ah crap…" Joey groaned, looking at the ceiling. "We _had _to get the smart ones, didn't we, God?"

"No worries, Joey," Sawyer said, looking over at his friend with a smile before pulling his gun out of his belt. "I have ways of making him talk other than death threats." Spinning the weapon, Sawyer pointed it down at the man's foot and fired.

As the man screamed, Sawyer slid the gun back into his belt and stared the man in the eyes.

"There are other things I can do with this gun, you know," Sawyer said, looking his 'foe' in the eyes. "I don't want to have to do it, but if you _don't _give us the information we want, I'll have to turn to something more damaging than a toe. Do we have a deal?"

The man nodded, his eyes slowly brimming over with faint tears.

"Good," Sawyer said, lowering the man to the ground again. "So, talk. How'd you track us to here?"

"The mall…" the man gasped, looking up at Sawyer with fear evident on his face. "W-we saw you come in with those others, a-and figured you'd probably have some other allies at wherever it was they lived, so w-we tracked your temporal displacement atoms b-back to this apartment b-block…"

"Temporal wha?" Joey said, looking over at his friends. "What's that all about?"

"Maybe it's something to do with the League not being… _when_ they should be?" Rachel suggested casually. "You know, since they're from the past, something about them's not exactly in sync with the rest of us, so it… kinda… leaves a trace?" She shrugged. "Hey, I'm in fashion, not quantum mechanics."

Sawyer shrugged. "It's as good a guess as any," he smiled at Rachel. Then he turned back to the gunman. "Second question; does anyone else know about this?"

"No…" the man shook his head. "We thought we'd manage to take you down before that would become an issue…"

Sawyer sighed. "Well, at least that's something," he said, rolling his eyes slightly.

Then he lashed out at the man with his fist, knocking him out once again.

* * *

"Ouch!" Monica winced, as the man fell to the ground. She looked up at Tom. "Did you have to shoot his foot?"

Sawyer sighed again as he slumped down on a chair near the kitchen area. "I didn't _want _to; I just figured it was the only way he'd tell us anything," he said to her. Looking down at the collapsed forms on the floor, he sighed again. "We're going to need somewhere to dump these guys."

"The park?" Chandler suggested casually. "I mean, if we just get rid of most of their weapons and stuff and leave them there, they'd probably just be mistaken for a bunch of wandering nutcases, right?" He shrugged. "After all, what're they going to say; that they were tracking Tom Sawyer and Doctor Jekyll and got shot by a bunch of randoms? Who'd believe them?"

"Yeah, I guess…" Monica said, as she looked down at the fallen bodies. "Well, let's get going; it'll be night soon."

"OK," Sawyer said. "I'll just contact the others and let them know about the recent development, and then we'll need to think more about our next move." Standing back up, he looked over at Chandler. "How do I contact them? Telephone, or haven't you got that yet?"

"Um, yeah, actually, we have it," Chandler said, indicating the item in question. "It's just over there."

"Right," Sawyer said, walking towards it and picking it up, He stared at the numbers for a few seconds, and then sighed.

"On second thoughts, you do it," he said, passing it over to Chandler before looking over at Joey, Rachel and Monica. "You guys help me find somewhere for these guys to go for the moment, OK?"


	11. The One With Jekyll On Campus

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League; I just own the bad guy.

Feedback: I'd appreciate it.

**Sean Malloy-1: **I might keep those suggestions in mind, but I've got a mass of stories to get through first before I do the modern superheroes meeting, and I can't make many promises about the Star Wars thing. However, there will be some Star Trek characters in a future story of mine for sure…

**Artemis Gray: **Glad to hear the _Friends _cast are in character; I was worried I might make a few mistakes on that front.

The One Where They Help Save the World

"Hold on a minute here," Ross said, holding up one hand as he looked at Sawyer. "You're telling me a bunch of gunmen attacked you guys at the mall?"

"Yep," Sawyer said, sitting back in the chair he'd claimed as his own. With the gunmen's bodies currently lying in Central Park behind some bushes, and their weapons hidden away in Monica and Joey's apartments, the League and the gang had decided to meet up in Monica and Chandler's apartment to discuss their options for their next move.

"You fought them off?" Ross said, still sounding incredulous.

"Naturally, or we wouldn't be here," Skinner said, idly scratching the back of his hand.

"No, no, I mean… _you _fought them off?" Ross said, looking over at Chandler in amazement. "_You_?? You ran from practically _every _fight we stumbled across back in college, and you seriously expect me to believe you survived a gunfight?"

* * *

"Actually, he was one of the people holding the guns," Sawyer put in, indicating the three weapons on the kitchen table; Monica had insisted that the guns be given a clean before they started trying to track their mysterious opponents down. Privately, Sawyer was already planning to try and ask a couple of the other members of the group to take the guns when they went out searching, but he was going to give it some time before he offered them.

"_Chandler _holding a gun??!!" Ross yelled in amazement, looking over at Chandler. "You've never even _seen _one apart from in movies!"

"Ross, could you let go of the shock and horror at Chandler's suddenly being able to stand up for himself and focus on the issue at hand?" Rachel asked, looking over at her friend. "We've got at least one remarkably intelligent, time-travel-capable homicidal maniac on our backs and wanting to change history; we don't have the time to worry about that."

"I know, but… a _gun_?!" Ross said, looking over at Chandler before he sighed and looked over at Sawyer. "Anyway, any ideas as to our next move?"

"W-well, personally, I think it's essential that we get our entire arsenal set up b-before we make any new moves," Jekyll said, raising one hand. "I-I should probably try to prepare a batch of my serum b-before we start charging into action; after all, H-Hyde does account for the majority of our offensive strength. It has to be a good thing to h-have him on our team for the main attack…" He trailed off. "I never thought I'd say something like that."

"What, admit that we need Edward?" Skinner asked, shrugging a little as he spoke. "Yeah, gotta confess, I never really expected we'd hear that from you either. The rest of us… yes. You specifically… no."

"Um… problem?" Monica said, raising one hand inquiringly. "No offence… Henry, but how are you going to make the serum? It's not like you can just grab the ingredients from a chemist's and whip them up in some science lab, is it? That stuff wouldn't be available over the counter, I'm assuming? And even if you can get your hands on it, where would you make it? We don't _exactly_ have a science lab here, you know!"

"Well, I have an idea that _should_ solve that problem," Ross said, looking over from where he was sitting, sipping from a glass of water he'd poured himself.

"Which is?" Sawyer asked, looking over at the man.

"Well, I work in the palaeontology department of New York University, and it has a large science block," Ross said. "It just occurred to me that, well, maybe I could take Henry in, passing him off as an old college friend of mine, and he could whip up his serum in a chemistry classroom while I tried to keep anyone else from tracking him down? I know the school's schedule's pretty well; there aren't going to be any chemistry classes this afternoon, so we don't have to worry about getting any inquisitive students dropping in on us."

Jekyll hesitated for a few seconds, and then nodded slowly.

"It… _could _work," he said slowly, continuing to nod thoughtfully as he spoke. "It might be a bit difficult, but at least I might be able to make a start on preparing a batch."

"It has a good chance, I'll give it that," Hartdegen put in. "I taught in the university myself once, and, if memory serves, it had everything you'll need for the formula in it." Then he shrugged. "Of course, things may have changed a bit over the last hundred years, but it certainly bodes well for your chances of success."

"Right, then it's decided," Rachel said, as she got up and started to walk towards the door.

Sawyer grabbed her wrist. "Where are you going?" he asked her.

Rachel briefly laughed. "Well, where else? With Henry and Ross!" she replied simply.

"No," Sawyer said, standing up to look her in the eyes. "You're not. You're staying here."

* * *

"Really?" Rachel said, looking back at him. A part of herself found herself thinking how attractive his eyes were, but she shook it off; she wasn't interested in flirting with him right now. "No offence intended, _Tom_, but what gives you the right to take charge?"

"He's practically been our leader since we lost our original one on our first mission, he's gone toe-to-toe with Dracula himself, and he's pretty much the deadliest shot of our time," Skinner put in from the side. "I think that gives him the right to take charge, don't you, Miss Green?"

Joey nodded. "Well, I'm convinced," he said.

"Joey!" Rachel said, looking over at him. She didn't _need_ this right now! Here she was, trying to show an _extremely_ cute spy she could be an asset to their team, and Joey was actually suggesting she stay behind?

* * *

"Hey, I'm not going to argue with the potential best shot of the nineteenth century!" Joey said, raising his hands in mock surrender.

"Actually, Mr Tribbianni, we are currently living in the first years of the twentieth century, in our home time," Mina put in.

Joey shrugged. "Whatever," he said. "You're alive when Shakespeare was; that's all that matters."

Ross coughed sharply to attract his friend's attention. . "Actually, Joey, Shakespeare's from the fifteenth century," he said, trying not to sound condensing.

Joey blinked, stared blankly at nothing for a few seconds, and shrugged.

"What the hell; who cares about the fine print?" he said, as he slumped back into his seat.

"Look," Jekyll said, sitting up a bit straighter as he spoke, "there's no sense in anyone other than Mr Gellar and I going away on this… 'mission', for lack of a better term for it. As far as we know, nobody's connected us with him or Miss Buffay yet; our adversaries have no reason to believe I'll try to prepare my serum in New York University…" He stopped briefly, and then continued. "Well… as far as we know, anyway."

"Right then," Ross said, standing up and looking over at Jekyll. "Shall we get going? After all, no time like the present."

Jekyll nodded. "Very well," he said, as he stood up. He looked over at Sawyer. "We'll be back soon, I'll make sure of that."

Sawyer smiled briefly. "Hope you find what you're looking for, Jekyll," he said simply.

"And so say all of us, Doctor," Nemo added simply.

Just as Ross was almost at the door, he stopped and turned back to look in Monica's direction.

"Can we borrow the Porsche?" he asked his sister.

Monica rolled her eyes and sighed, but with a small smile on her face as well. "Sure; the keys are in my bag," she said.

"Thanks," Ross said, as he reached into the bag, pulled out the keys, and headed for the door, Jekyll close behind.

"We'll be back soon!" Jekyll said, looking back at his friends, before he shut the door to the apartment.

* * *

Jekyll stared up at the building in front of him, his eyes almost bulging out of his head as he looked up at it.

He couldn't believe how… _large _it was. He'd attended Edinburgh University for his own medical education, and had thought it was large enough for any school, but this one?

It was far, _far _larger…

"Incredible…" he whispered, before turning to look at Ross. "And we're going _in _there?"

"Yeah, but only to the chemistry labs," Ross said, as he locked the Porsche and walked after Jekyll. "I figured we'd want to attract as little attention to ourselves as possible, so I'll be taking us in by a side door that leads directly to the main chemistry classroom."

"Right…" Jekyll said, sounding slightly disappointed even to himself. But he had to acknowledge the truth; Ross had a good point there. They didn't want to attract any more attention to themselves then they had to, if only to prevent anyone tracing the League back to their new friends.

* * *

"Just through here," Ross said, as he unlocked and opened a plain brown door in the side of the building and walked into it, Jekyll close behind.

They climbed up some stairs, and then went through another door to arrive in one end of a long corridor, which stretched down to a large double door at the other end.

There were various assorted classrooms on both sides of the corridor, but Ross took Jekyll directly to one of them in particular; the largest one, which already had several test tubes and measuring jugs lying out near the sink, Ross was relieved to note. He also noticed that the keys for the cupboards holding the chemicals were lying on the teacher's desk, and briefly smiled at the sight.

This wasn't actually that hard.

"Right," he said, grabbing the cupboard keys and tossing them to Jekyll, "those are the keys for the cupboard. You whip up your formula in here, and I'll stay outside and make sure nobody interrupts you."

"Thanks," Jekyll said, as he looked over the keys briefly before selecting one and opening the first cupboard.

"Anytime," Ross smiled, as he walked back out to the corridor, shut the door behind him, and stood up against the wall. He found himself hoping that he'd remembered the schedule right and there weren't any chemistry classes for the next couple of hours; somehow, he doubted he'd be able to come up with a good excuse for what he was doing right now.

Looking down at his watch, he sighed.

It was going to be a long afternoon….

* * *

After about an hour and a half of waiting, Jekyll walked out of the classroom with a smile on his face.

"Finished!" he said, grinning as he held up a large bottle filled with a clear liquid before he slipped it into his jacket pocket. It wasn't exactly a large bottle- probably only the size of a glass bottle of milk- but it still seemed to be a bit too conspicuous for Ross's liking.

"Are you _sure_ you need that much?" he asked Jekyll as they started to walk down the corridor back towards the stairs.

"Oh, don't worry, Ross; I don't actually require that much to be able to change into Hyde," Jekyll smiled. "This is just a precaution in case I need to transform more often then I'm expecting. Just find me some smaller containers then this bottle, and I should be ready for action fairly soon."

"Great!" Ross said, as he turned towards the door to the stairs…

"Professor Gellar?" a voice said from behind them.

* * *

Ross and Jekyll instantly looked over at each other, their eyes widening in fear, and then Ross turned to look at the source of the voice.

He sighed in relief; it was just Professor Winston, a colleague in the palaeontology department. Not the best bit of luck, but they'd probably manage to get away without too much difficulty.

"Ah, Professor Winston," he said, walking towards the other man and holding out his hand. "Good to see you."

"Same here, Gellar," Winston smiled, shaking Ross's hand before looking over in Jekyll's direction. "I'm sorry; you are…?"

"Oh," Jekyll said, smiling and holding out one hand automatically. "Doctor Henry Jekyll."

Winston's jaw dropped as he stared at Jekyll, who was already mentally berating himself for his mistake.

"Jekyll?" Winston said, staring at Jekyll in amazement. "_Henry Jekyll_…"

"Yeah, it's a laugh, isn't it?" Ross said, chuckling a little as though he genuinely found it funny. "His father was obsessed with the book from the moment he first heard about it, and insisted he name his son after the title character. He even legally changed… Henry's last name to make it work."

Jekyll blinked, then decided he might as well try to go along with it.

"Yes… Dad… was a bit unhealthily fixated with that book," he said, smiling weakly. "It was a major source of embarrassment for me when I was growing up; I never really understood why he did it."

"_Anyway_," Ross said, coughing loudly to break into the conversation, "We have to be off, Winston. Sorry about troubling you; Henry just wanted to check out the labs here, and, well, he…. he… helped me out a bit when we were in college. I felt I owed it to him."

"Right…" Winston said, sounding slightly sceptical as he walked back off down the corridor.

"Goodbye!" Jekyll called after him, before he and Ross started to walk down the stairs towards the car.

"Well, that went well," he said, smiling at Ross brightly.


	12. The One With The Terminator

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League; I just own the bad guy.

Feedback: You want this to continue? Feedback is required for _that _to happen...

The One Where They Help Save the World

Phoebe sighed listlessly as she stared out of the apartment window. Monica, apparently determined to show that people of the early twenty-first century could be as resourceful as those of the early twentieth, and had suggested that the entire gang stay the night in hers and Joey's apartments in order to prevent anyone who might be watching them from outside taking them by surprise. Her reasoning was that, if they were attacked, it would be for the best if they could gather all their resources to fight them off as soon as possible, and not have to wait for them to come along from another building.

As a result, despite the objections of Joey, Skinner, Hartdegen and herself, Phoebe now found herself facing the prospect of spending the night on the floor of Monica's apartment in a sleeping bag, with an invisible man sleeping on the couch while a spy and a vampire slept in the spare room (Joey had been a bit disappointed when he'd learned that Mina and Tom were together, Phoebe recalled; evidently, he'd been hoping to introduce the world to 'How you doin'?' a few years earlier).

Ross, Henry, Nemo and Alex would be staying over in Joey and Rachel's apartment, with weapons kept in the cupboards in the apartment's 'kitchens' in the event of an attack.

Right now, the groups were just killing time until Ross and Jekyll got back, at which point their strange little gathering would be deciding on their next move against their unknown opponents. Phoebe had volunteered to be their lookout, in case their foe actually did know where they were and tried to attack them. Tom, Mina, Rodney, Chandler, Joey and Alex had decided to just kick back and watch a few movies, while Nemo was looking over the weapons that they'd taken from the gunmen, and Rachel and Monica were trying to straighten out Joey's apartment to accommodate the new living arrangements.

* * *

"Wow…." Skinner said, as McClane and Holly kissed in the back seat of the car just before the end credits rolled. He looked over at Chandler and Joey. "And that kind of thing's made _all _the time?!"

"Oh, you bet," Chandler smiled, as he smiled over at his new friend. "Trust me, _Die Hard _is cool, but you've barely even started to see what we've got in this day and age."

"Really?" Hartdegen asked, looking over curiously at Chandler. "What else can you recommend?"

"Well," Joey said, as he reached into his bag and pulled out a second DVD, "if you liked that, wait until you see _The Termina_-"

He was suddenly interrupted when Sawyer grabbed the box out of his hands and stared at it.

"What?" Mina said, looking over at her lover. "What's the big deal?"

Sawyer looked over at Mina from where she sat beside him. "Look at the cover, Mina," he said, handing the DVD over to her. "Does the guy on the front cover look familiar?"

"What?" Mina asked, as she looked over at the cover. "Tom, be serious; how could there be anything on the- _TERRY_?!" she yelled, grabbing the cover from Tom's hands and staring at it in amazement.

"What the…?" Skinner said, as he leaned over to look at the DVD with his friends. He blinked in amazement, but tried to conceal the shock he felt at the sight.

"Well… that was unexpected," he said simply.

"Tell me about it," Sawyer said. "I mean, who'd have guessed it?"

"What?" Joey asked, looking at the group in confusion. "What are you guys talking about?"

Sawyer looked over at Joey as he turned the DVD over to show them the picture on the front. It was one Joey knew fairly well, having rented it so many times; the Terminator, as played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket as it held a gun up beside it, pointing into the air.

"So?" Joey said, as he looked up at the League. "It's just the Terminator."

"Precisely," Sawyer said, putting the DVD down. "Joey, Chandler, you guys probably aren't going to believe this, but we _know that guy_!"

"What?" Joey said, looking at them in awe. "You know Arnold?"

"Yes, I'm sure he's over a hundred years old, Joe," Chandler said, sighing. He looked at Sawyer. "What is it really; you guys ran into the real Skynet-created Terminator?"

"Yeah," Sawyer said, nodding in reply. "He's actually the seventh member of the League."

Chandler blinked. "Okaaaaaaaaaaay…." he said, uncertainly. Then a thought occurred to him. "OK then, if you know the Terminator, then answer this; what does he say he is?"

"A cybernetic organism; living tissue over a metal endoskeleton," Sawyer replied automatically. "Not exactly human, but close enough to pass for one at immediate examination."

Chandler blinked in surprise at that bit of information. Finally, he slumped down in the chair, said "Oh my God!", and stared up at the ceiling.

"You _know _the Terminator?!" Joey said, still not quite able to believe it.

* * *

"Yeah…" Skinner said, rolling his eyes and staring up at the ceiling. "Look, it's not that big a deal, you know. The guy mostly just shoots and hits out at whoever's trying to hurt us; he's not really that much of a talker."

"Yeah, but the _Terminator_!" Joey said, almost sounding impressed.

"What's all this about the Terminator?" Ross asked, as he and Jekyll entered the apartment, Jekyll holding a bottle full of clear liquid in his hands.

Joey looked over at Ross. "These guys _know _the Terminator!" he said, sounding almost as happy as though he'd learned that he could be sure of sex for the rest of his life.

"What?" Ross said, looking over at Jekyll. "Is that true?"

"The Terminator? Oh, you must mean Terry," Jekyll said, smiling as inspiration occurred to him. "Yes, we know him; he had to stay behind because he was injured in our fight with the first nutcase who came after us." He shrugged. "Besides, we needed someone to keep an eye on the _Nautilus_."

"The what?" Phoebe asked, looking over from where she sat at the window.

"Nemo's ship," Hartdegen said, looking over at the blond woman. "It's a submarine; it can travel under the water at remarkable speeds. It's pretty much the only real home we have in our time."

"Ah," Phoebe said. Then she looked over at Jekyll and smiled. "Hi there, Doctor J.," she said, grinning broadly at him. "Everything go well?"

Jekyll nodded and held up the bottle. "A pint or so of Hyde serum," he said, patting it slightly. "More then enough to let me fill up a few of my typical phials; we're back up to our full complement of weaponry in the event of a crisis."

"Perfect," Sawyer said, as he reached his jacket briefly to check his Colts before looking around at the rest of the League. "So, what do we do now?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Joey said, looking over at the agent. "Find the bad guy, stop the bad guy, and then use his time machine to get you home!"

"Um, Joey?" Chandler said, looking over at his friend. "If we don't know the bad guy's location, how are we meant to find him? We're not exactly detectives, you know."

"Well, couldn't we just use the oldest trick in the book?" Skinner asked, raising one hand.

"Which is?" Hartdegen asked, glancing over at his friend.

"Find the gunmen and ask them for the information?" Skinner asked, shrugging helplessly. "Well, what else can we do?"

Sawyer sighed as he looked over at Skinner. "Skinner, as far as plans go, I've heard better crap back when I was barely ten years old and thought that witches walked around my town at will." Then he sighed. "On the other hand, it's the only plan we've got, so we'd best get on with it."

Standing up, he glanced over at Chandler and Mina. "C'mon you two; we've got to get going before the park gets crowded again."

Chandler blinked. "W-what?" he said, looking dazedly at Sawyer. "What the hell do you mean, _we_; surely you two could manage on your own?"

"Chandler," Sawyer sighed, looking over at his new friend. "You know this time and place pretty well, and you're the only member of your group who's actually used a gun in a fight. If things turn ugly, you'd be our best bet at actually being an asset in a fight situation."

"Oh," Chandler said, sighing briefly as he stared down at the floor. Then he rolled his eyes and stood back up.

"What the hell?" he shrugged.

Phoebe smiled at him. "Monica would be proud of you," she said simply.

Chandler shrugged and turned to look at Sawyer and Mina.

"Let's go," he said simply. "Time's a-wasting."

"Right then," Sawyer said, as he headed over to the kitchen area and grabbed a couple of the smaller guns, tossing one to Chandler and slipping the second one under his coat. "Ladies first?" he said, looking over at Mina.

"Thank you, kind sir," Mina said, smiling briefly at Tom before walking out the door of the apartment, followed closely by Sawyer and Chandler.

The gang looked around at each other briefly, as though uncertain what to say next, but, eventually, Joey broke the silence.

"So, a submarine, huh? How's the view down there?" he asked casually. "Ever seen Nessie?"


	13. The One Where There's Only Four

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League; I just own the plot and the bad guy.

Feedback: You want this to continue? Feedback is required for _that _to happen...

**queerquail:** Don't worry, he'll manage fine, I assure you of that.

**The Sabbit: **Thanks for that compliment; I was really worried about whether or not this would work, and I'm glad to hear that everyone's in character.

**Morima: **Thanks for saying that, but I'm just a guy who had a wild idea; quite frankly, I'm amazed it's gone down this well.

The One Where They Help Save the World

"So, are we anywhere near them yet?" Mina asked Chandler, who was leading the way to where he, Monica and Sawyer had left the gunmen who'd attacked Joey. There'd been a bit of debate regarding who'd lead the way at first, but eventually Sawyer gave the role to Chandler; if anyone asked them where they were going, he'd be the best person to provide a believable cover story.

"We should be there soon…" Chandler said, looking around himself as they turned off the path and started to look around near the bushes where he thought he remembered leaving the gunmen. Seeing nothing, he looked back at Sawyer with a raised eyebrow. "Does this look about right to you, or am I on the wrong track?"

* * *

"No, this definitely looks like it's the right place…" Sawyer said, as he looked around at his surroundings with a growing sense of apprehension. He wasn't much of a hunter, his methods being limited to a few things he'd picked up in some conversations he'd had with Allan while they were heading to Mongolia, but he knew enough to be sure when he was in a certain location or another, and he was sure they were where the gunmen had been dumped. So either his memory was flawed or…

He froze.

If _that _had happened…

"What?" Mina asked, looking back curiously at her lover. "What's wrong?"

"We have to go back," Sawyer said, looking at her and Chandler with horror on his face. "If I'm right, we may have a bigger problem on our hands then we thought."

"What?" Chandler said, looking over at Sawyer curiously. "What do you mean?"

Sawyer looked over at Chandler, his expression filled with obvious fear.

"Don't you get it, Chandler?" he asked. "Whoever sent those gunmen after us has found them!"

Chandler's jaw dropped in horror.

"Yes, exactly," Mina said, looking at him before turning back the way they'd come. "We need to get moving; our friends may be in trouble."

"_Trouble_!" Chandler yelled, looking over at Mina with a terrified gleam in his eyes. "Mina, with what I've seen of these guys so far, _trouble _would be an understatement! They shot at us in a _shopping mall_, for crying out loud; they don't _care _about civilian casualties even a little bit!"

"Chandler, calm down, willya?" Sawyer said, looking over at his new friend as he raised his hands in a calming gesture. "Look, I'm as worried as you are, but right now, Mina has a point; we don't get moving now, we're screwed." He looked over at Mina. "You go on ahead and see what's happening; Chandler and I'll be right behind you/ If any gunmen are there already, fight them if it looks like anyone's going to get hurt, but otherwise just make sure that one of those nutcases stays there for questioning, OK? If there aren't any immediate problems, we'll meet you outside the apartment. "

Mina nodded and leapt up into the air, turned into a mass of bats, and began to fly back in the direction that she and her friends had just come from.

Chandler looked up in amazement.

"Whoa…" he said simply.

"Yeah, she does that a lot," Sawyer said, looking over at Chandler. Then he jerked his thumb back after her. "Let's go."

Chandler nodded, and the two of them charged down the path, heading for the apartment building, only one thought on Chandler's mind.

_Please be all right, Monica…_

* * *

Charging up the steps so fast that he nearly crashed into the wall on at least three occasions, Chandler finally saw Mina standing outside the door to his apartment and stopped running, Sawyer close behind him, and the two of them swiftly joined the vampire.

"Situation?" Sawyer asked.

Mina sighed. "Not good, I'm afraid," she replied, looking over at Chandler. "Your friends and wife have all vanished, Mr Bing."

Chandler looked at Mina in horror. "WH-" he began, but then Mina clamped a hand over his mouth, stopping him from continuing.

"Quiet, please; there's still one man in there," she whispered. "I believe that he's setting bombs or something to make us think that the others have been killed; if I charge in on my own, I should manage to take him down without anything getting set off, and then we can question him about the whereabouts of the others."

Sawyer nodded. "Perfect," he said simply. Then he raised his gun and smiled. "Let's rock and roll."

Mina nodded, turned around, and charged straight through the door, knocking it off its hinges as she struck the man in black who was crouched down behind the sofa, apparently putting something underneath it. Before he had even finished turning around, Mina had grabbed his gun out of his hands, crushed the barrel and thrown it off to one side, and was holding him up in the air by the neck as Chandler and Sawyer entered the apartment after her.

* * *

"R-right then," Chandler said, trying to sound threatening as he pointed his gun at the man's head. "Now, we have a few q-questions for you, my good m-man, so you'd better a-answer them, or you'll be in t-trouble!"

Sawyer sighed and looked over at his friend. "Chandler, why don't you just let me and Mina handle this, OK?" he asked. Chandler looked defensive for a few seconds, then stepped back to let Sawyer talk to the man.

"Thank you," Sawyer said, before turning to look at their would-be adversary. "Now then, my good man," he said casually, as he aimed his gun at the man's shoulder, "The situation here is simple; tell us what we want to know, and you'll get out of here with maybe only a few bruises. Don't cooperate, and, well…" He shrugged. "I can't guarantee you'll get out of here with all your bones intact. Are we clear?"

The man nodded slightly.

"Good," Sawyer said, bringing the gun down to his side to look at the man. "Firstly, how did you find those guys we knocked out earlier?"

"E-electronic b-beacons in their c-clothes," the man said shakily. "They l-let us keep t-track of any of our men at a-any time, regardless of w-where they are…"

"Ah, so you knew they'd been dumped in the park…" Sawyer said, looking at the man thoughtfully. Then he went back to the questions. "Secondly, what's happened to the others?"

"K-kidnapped," the man said. "W-we were told to c-capture you and a-anyone that we found with you, a-and then destroy the a-area to make anyone around t-think you were dead…"

"I see," Sawyer said, before turning back to look at the man. "OK, here's what we're going to do. You're going to take us to your boss's base, because if _you_ don't go back he'll figure out something's wrong, and then we'll take it from there. You can either stick around after that and get shot, or run off and forget you ever met us. Got that?"

The man nodded nervously.

"Good," Sawyer said, looking over at Mina. "You can let him down now."

Mina nodded and eased her grip on the man's throat, letting him stand on his own again.

"Wait a minute…" Chandler said, looking around the apartment. "We're forgetting something…"

"Excuse me?" Mina asked, looking over at Chandler. "What do you mean, we're forgetting something?"

"I don't…." Chandler began, and then clicked his fingers. "Of course!" he said, snapping his fingers before he turned around and charged out of the apartment.

Mina and Sawyer looked over at each other quizzically, but the puzzlement vanished as Chandler came back into the room, carrying a snoozing Emma in his arms.

* * *

Chandler smiled as he looked up at his new friends. "At least they didn't get _her_," he said, smiling down at the sleeping form of his niece. Then the smile faded as he looked up at the two of them. "What do I do with her? I can't leave her with anyone; what would I tell them?"

Mina sighed. "We only have one option, Mr Bing," she said "We shall have to take her with us."

"WHAT!" Sawyer and Chandler yelled, looking over at Mina in shock.

* * *

"Are you insane!" Sawyer yelled, looking over at his lover with a bemused expression on his face. "We can't take a _baby _into a combat situation; it's suicide!"

"We don't have a choice Tom," Mina said, sighing as she looked over at the young agent. "We can't put anyone else at risk, and it's too dangerous to leave her here on her own even if we weren't being hunted by some unknown adversary. We shall just have to take our chances."

The two men looked over at each other, and then Chandler sighed and looked down at the sleeping form in his arms.

"I'll keep an eye on her," he said, eventually. He looked over at Sawyer. "Think you can manage being the main gunman?"

Sawyer shrugged as he raised his own gun.

"I've been in that position before now," he said casually, as he picked up the weapon that their prisoner had dropped and ejected the ammunition cartridge. "I'm sure I'll manage it now, thanks for asking."

He looked between the two of them. "Our friends are in danger, guys," he said simply. "Let's go."

They walked out of the apartment, the gunman walking sullenly in front of them, Mina's iron-like hand on his shoulder to prevent him escaping.


	14. The One Where They Enter the Gauntlet

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League; I just own the plot and the bad guy.

Feedback: The more I get, the faster I write.

**The Sabbit: **Yeah, 'lurkers' can be a bit annoying at times, can't they?

**Angel46: **Well, glad to hear I gave you a good introduction to 'Friends' fan fiction

The One Where They Help Save the World

"This is it?" Chandler asked, looking at the large building in front of him in surprise.

It was an old warehouse, located on the coastline of Manhattan Island, looking like it had been abandoned for years; in fact, Chandler was fairly sure he'd seen something like it in the _Spider-Man_ movie that had been released last year…

"Y-yes…" the gunman whimpered, looking over at where Chandler sat in the back of van, Emma in his lap and Sawyer opposite him.

Upon learning that the gunmen had driven here in a van to make it seem like they were just repairmen, the three of them had decided that Mina would stay up front with the driver while the other two sat around on a couple of boxes in the back.

Mina sighed. "Very well," she said, turning away from the building to look back at the gunman. "Now get out," she told him, indicating the door beside him. "And do yourself a favour; run, and forget you ever saw or even heard about us."

The man nodded shakily, opened the door, stepped out of the van, and then ran down the street as fast as his legs could carry him.

* * *

Chandler blinked as he saw the man run by them through the windows in the van's back doors, and then shrugged and looked over at Sawyer.

"Does she always trigger that kind of reaction?" he asked the spy, raising a curious eyebrow.

Sawyer shrugged. "It depends," he said. "If the other guy's prepared for vampires, not really. If he's not, or if she takes them by surprise…" He smiled slightly. "Let's just say fear can make men do remarkable things."

"Ah," Chandler nodded in apparent understanding before glancing down at a snoozing Emma and indicating the van door. "After you."

Sawyer raised his gun and smiled. "Let's rock," he told his new friend, as the two of them stepped out of the van, joining Mina where she now stood in front of the warehouse.

"Not much of a secret headquarters, is it?" Mina said, looking over at the others.

"Well, not when compared to Moriarty's, it isn't" Sawyer said, nodding thoughtfully. "Then again, maybe this is normal for villains these days; who's to say how things have changed?"

He looked over slightly at Chandler, who just shrugged.

"Hey, what do I know about these things?" he said, looking over at Sawyer and Mina. "You're the superheroes; I'm just a guy who happened to be there when you came through that… portal thingie."

Sawyer sighed and indicated the door with his gun. "Look, we need to get moving before anyone else comes along and sees us," he said, indicating the street around them with his other hand. "Mina, you lead the way; send out a bat or two to give us advanced warning of any gunmen we might come across. Chandler, stay at the back and keep Emma out of harm's way, but keep your gun available in case you have to use it suddenly. Got that?"

The two of them nodded.

Sawyer smiled. "Good," he said, before turning to Mina. "You're up."

Mina nodded, closed her eyes, briefly focused, and suddenly, two bats were in the air in front of her, flying towards the warehouse and sweeping in through cracks in the walls.

Chandler blinked in surprise and looked over at Sawyer inquiringly.

"Where'd the bats come from?" he asked his friend.

Sawyer shrugged. "Never really figured it out myself," he replied. "I generally just think of it as being an extra bonus of Mina's vampire side and leave it at that."

"Fair enough," Chandler said.

* * *

Noting that Mina didn't seem to be fully aware of them at the moment, Chandler decided it was time to ask another question that had been bothering him.

"So… what's it like, dating a vampire?" he asked the spy.

Sawyer looked thoughtful for a few seconds, and shrugged.

"It's… interesting," he said. "Gotta admit, though, I've never really thought about the differences between Mina and a normal woman; she can…" He chuckled slightly as this, as though embarrassed, "_last _longer, if you know what I mean, but otherwise there's not really anything different about her."

"What?" Chandler asked, as he checked Emma once again to make sure she couldn't hear him before leaning in to whisper to Sawyer. "You mean you've never asked her to try something… different?"

Sawyer blinked in surprise at that comment, but then just shook his head in answer.

"No, not really," he said. "I thought about it at first- after all, who wouldn't?- but, well, Mina's not exactly keen on the vampire parts of her nature, so I generally just let her keep that part of her nature to herself."

Chandler opened his mouth to say something else, but then Mina opened her eyes and the two men turned to look at her.

"Well?" Sawyer asked.

"There are only three or four men visible," Mina said, as she looked over at her current allies. "I noticed a large metal hatch in the floor, with a series of small numbered buttons on the top of it; evidently there must be a password of some kind that we need to enter to get into the main facility."

"So, all we need to do is leave someone alive long enough to give us the code and we're set?" Chandler asked, looking curiously at the two heroes.

Sawyer raised his gun and nodded. "Exactly," he said. He looked over at Mina. "Your kind of territory, I think; take down all but one of them, or at least just lure them out so I can finish the job. Chandler, remember what I said earlier; stay back unless we need backup, Emma has to be protected."

Chandler swallowed, and turned to look over at the door of the large warehouse in front of them. Here he was, a simple advertiser, perfectly happy spending time with his wife, his brother-in-law, and all their friends…

And now, here he was, his still-month-old niece in one hand and a gun in the other, standing alongside a vampire and a spy from the year 1900, about to charge into a secret base, against unknown numbers of bad guys, and a bad guy so insane that he actually tried to kill some guys in the past with no apparent regard for what that may have done to time.

He was seriously out of his depth.

But….

He swallowed.

But the people who meant the most to him were in danger right now, and he was one of the only people who could save them now.

He had to go in.

He smiled, and raised his gun. "Let's lock and load," he said.

* * *

Jim wasn't even sure what had just happened.

One moment he was just standing around, staring idly at his watch, wondering how long it would be until his shift was over, and the next…

The next, the sound of bullets tore through the air, there was a loud 'thump' as two men hit the ground, and suddenly Jim found himself pressed up again the wall, one arm pinned behind his back, and a gun pointing at the back of his head.

"Your friends are down and potentially in need of medical help," a voice said, sounding almost like the speaker was as nervous about the situation as Jim was himself. "If y-you don't want to be in the same situation, tell us the code for the door and w-we'll let you off with a thump on the head."

"Nice job, Chandler," a second voice said from further back. Jim vaguely heard the click of a gun being loaded, and swallowed; _two _of them? Which one was the vampire again…?

"Just don't sound quite so nervous, and you'll be perfect," the voice said. Footsteps sounded briefly along the floor, and suddenly, Jim felt another gun pointing at the back of his head. "You heard my friend here, sir; tell us the code, and you get off lightly."

"A-and if I don't?" Jim asked.

The second voice sighed. "Then I'll have to shoot you in various limbs until you decide you're willing to cooperate," he explained casually. "Trust me; I know just how much punishment the human body can take without actually dying, and you won't like what will be happening to you as a result."

Jim swallowed.

That had already made his mind up.

"T-the password's 1-9-0-0-0-3," he stammered nervously.

"Is that t-three 0s, or did you just r-repeat one 0 twice?" the first voice said, the gun that was (Presumably) being held by that man shaking slightly as he spoke.

"I-it's t-three 0s," Jim said nervously, wishing they'd just hurry up and finish the job; he couldn't take much longer of having to endure these guns pointing into his brains.

"Right," the second voice said, as the two guns drew back from his head. "Thank you for your time," the voice continued, shortly before something rammed sharply into the back of Jim's head. Stars flew in front of his eyes, and he felt like needles were tearing out chunks of his brain, as he collapsed to the ground, only just grateful that he hadn't been shot…

* * *

Sawyer stared at the numbered pad on the hatch in front of him, sighing slightly as his finger hovered over the '1' button.

"Who'd have thought the bad guy would be so obvious?" he said.

"What?" Chandler asked, as he shifted Emma over to the other side; amazingly, she was still asleep. Then again, they had left her just outside the door while the gunfire had been going on; maybe she just hadn't heard it. "What's obvious about it?"

* * *

"Think about it, Mr Bing," Mina said, crouching down beside the two men to look at the pad. "1-9-0 refers to 1900- the year that we came from- and 0-0-3 refers to the present year- 2003. The villain is basically proclaiming their headquarters will bridge the gap between now and then in the code itself, only erasing one digit from each year." She sighed, and looked over at Tom. "Tragic, isn't it?"

"That they can't get anything more original?" Tom smiled, that wild grin that Mina always found so appealing when it was on him. "Yeah, I agree."

Then he shrugged, turned back to the pad, and tapped in the six numbers.

The hatch swung open, revealing a long flight of stairs that stretched down into the ground.

Chandler swallowed, and looked over at the others.

"We're going in?" he asked them, trying to conceal how nervous he was.

Sawyer raised his gun in reply, and Mina drew her daggers and twirled them around in her hands before grabbing the handles.

She nodded at Chandler.

"We're going in."

* * *

Several hundred metres below them, in a vast room that looked like something out an old James Bond film (Possibly one featuring somebody from S.P.E.C.T.R.E., such as Doctor No or Blofeld himself), the villain who had pulled the League almost a hundred years out of time, looked at the control panel in front of them, covered with buttons and monitor screens, and smiled as one of the lights on the console lit up.

Reaching over, the figure tapped a button on another panel, and sat back as a microphone lowered down from the ceiling towards the chair.

"Yeah, boss?" a voice said from the other end of the microphone.

"They're coming," the figure said simply. "Prepare the gauntlet."

A smirk crossed the figure's face, as a hand reached out and picked up a needle that was lying on a nearby table.

"Remember; take down the vampire, but leave the spy and any allies he may have to me," the figure continued, as it rolled up a nondescript dark blue sleeve and held the needle over a vein.

"Oh, and remember to move the bait to the end of the corridor," the voice added, before it terminated the call and plunged the needle into the vein.

There was a brief wince of pain, and then the figure smiled and relaxed into the chair. As the serum began to swim through the veins, spreading easily through the figure's bloodstream, a hand reached out and tapped another button.

Instantly, the monitors above the console were filled with images.

Ross Gellar, Joey Tribbianni, and Monica Gellar-Bing… Captain Nemo, Doctor Henry Jekyll and Phoebe Buffay… Rodney Skinner, Rachel Green and Professor Alexander Hartdegen…

All nine of them, trapped in three cages, either unconscious or badly beaten, and with their weapons- Nemo's sword, the guns that had been in the apartment- all confiscated and kept in a cupboard in the science division, only a couple of hundred metres away from the League.

The figure smiled.

Soon, the League would pay for the wrongs they would do…

And then their 'friends', who would aid those monsters in spreading further disharmony in this time, would follow them.

Kaitlin chuckled.

"This is for you, great-grandfathers…" she smiled, as she raised her hand and watched as the skin began to slowly fade away.…


	15. The One With the BreakOut

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League; I just own the plot and the bad guy.

Feedback: The more I get, the faster I write.

**Ingra:** Thank you; I try my best

**Kaudrim: **She's original, but that's all you're getting so far…

**The Sabbit: **I can make no promises; you'll just have to wait and see on that front…

**Morima: **Sorry about the delay; stuff kept coming up

The One Where They Help Save the World

"'Eep," Chandler squeaked, as he looked around at the corridor they'd found themselves in. It was long, with steep, dazzlingly bright white walls, only marred now and again by a few grey doors in the sides, and some small holes in the side of the walls that he couldn't quite identify.

"Guns," a voice said from behind him.

Looking back, Chandler saw Mina standing behind him, looking at the nearest one of the holes with a grim expression.

"What?" he asked, hoping he'd misheard her.

"I can see gun barrels in those holes," the vampire said, looking back at Chandler. "I don't know what kind of firepower they'll be using, but I think it's a safe bet that you two won't be able to withstand it."

She looked down the corridor, nodded briefly at herself, and then jumped briefly into the air, was surrounded by bats, and flew down the corridor. Gunfire was heard as she passed by the holes in the wall, but, even as the two men watched, large scratches appeared in the walls, the gunfire stopped, a loud tearing sound was heard, and then Mina was standing at the end of the corridor, various gun-barrels clutched in her hands that had once been in the wall.

She looked back at the others. "That was easy enough," she said dismissively, as she looked down at the metal shards in her hands; her new clothes weren't even scratched yet.

"Wow…" Chandler said, dazed slightly at the incredible speed of the vampire.

Then he looked back down at Emma, and shook his amazement off; they had work to do.

"Just move carefully," Sawyer said, raising his gun slightly as the three of them began to walk forward. "Right now, we're moving into unknown enemy territory; these guys could come out from any side."

* * *

"Ugh…." Rachel groaned, as she slowly blinked her eyes open. "What hit me…?"

Then she remembered.

Gunmen had broken into the apartment.

"Oh my God… EMMA!" Rachel cried, sitting sharply upright, desperate to know that her daughter was all right…

And she froze.

She wasn't in Monica and Chandler's apartment….

_She was in a cage_!

"OH MY GOD!" she screamed in horror, looking around herself for a way out…

Her eyes fell on the collapsed bodies of Skinner and Hartdegen.

She smiled slightly in relief.

At least _this _might help her…

She grabbed Hartdegen by the lapels, hauled his comatose form until it was only a few inches from her face, and then yelled at him, "WAKE UP!"

* * *

Hartdegen's eyes blinked open, and he stared up at the sight in front of him.

"Oh, it's you…" he said, before raising one hand to clutch at his head. "Uh… what happened to me?"

"We've been kidnapped!" Rachel yelled at him.

"WHAT!" Hartdegen said, sitting straight up to look at his surroundings at that comment…

And regretting it as a fresh wave of pain tore through his head.

"Ouch…" he groaned, grabbing his head in his hands again. He looked up at Rachel critically. "You know, couldn't you have just left me to recover on my own?"

"Oh, and what if somebody comes in to… y'know, _do _stuff?" Rachel said, her anger concealing any fear she might be feeling. "I work in fashion, damnit; I'm not meant to get involved in a hostage situation! You're the superhero; you're meant to _know _how to handle this kind of thing!"

"Miss Green, I don't know what your definition of a hero is, but I can assure you that I'm not what you seem to think I should be; I'm just a physics teacher who developed a time machine!" Hartdegen yelled back at her. "I'm hardly better equipped than you are to handle anything that may try and kill us!"

"_Indeed_," a voice said from above them.

Hartdegen and Rachel spun around, trying to see who had just spoken…

And seeing nothing.

Hartdegen sighed; he hated this kind of villain.

"Who are you?" he called out, assuming that the system he was dealing with was a two-way one. "Why have you brought us here?"

"_My name is not important_," the voice said (Now that Hartdegen was expecting it, he noted he couldn't even tell if it was male or female; the person was evidently disguising their voice somehow). "_You do not know me, Alexander Hartdegen, but trust me; I know you_."

Hartdegen nodded thoughtfully at that. "So, you're someone we'll encounter in our future and your past? And you brought us here to kill us before we do any of the things we did to you; is that it?"

"_The essential details are accurate, Mr Hartdegen_," the voice said, almost sounding like it was concealing admiration. "_You do your League great credit_."

"I try," Hartdegen said, shrugging casually. Then he raised a curious eyebrow. "So, if you don't mind, why have you brought us here anyway?"

"_Simple_," the voice said, as a large screen lowered down in front of Rachel and Hartdegen. "_Bait for the last two_." The voice almost seemed to chuckle. "_After all, where's the fun in taking down the entire League without giving them a bit of a fight_?"

The screen suddenly cleared, to reveal three figures tackling at least ten figures clad in red robes, one of them holding what almost looked like a baby-carrier…

Rachel paled in horror.

"EMMA!" she screamed, recognising the small figure in the carrier. "What… CHANDLER!" she yelled again, recognising the man holding her baby as he hit an opponent in the head with a gun, knocking the man down for the count.

"Tom? Mina?" Hartdegen said, staring at the scene in front of him as his two friends fought their way through their foes; despite the obvious disadvantage of numbers, the two of them appeared to be holding their own fairly well nevertheless, knocking down several adversaries even as they watched.

Smiling, Hartdegen looked up towards the microphone. "It would appear your complacency was misplaced, my friend," he said casually. "Our friends are coming for us, and they've already taken down most of your soldiers without much difficulty."

The voice chuckled. "_Oh, my complacency wasn't misplaced, Hartdegen_," it said, sounding annoyingly confident. "_Check _this_ out_."

The screen changed view, this time showing what looked like a hanger of some kind. In it stood three large metallic suits, each one about the same size as three men standing on top of each other, large guns in both hands and a long line of bullet shells connected up to something in the robot's back.

"Ah crap," Rachel whispered, looking at the suits in front of her.

"What?" Hartdegen asked, looking over at Rachel. "You know those things?"

"Only from a movie I saw a while back," Rachel replied, looking back at Chandler. "It was called 'The Matrix Revolutions'; featured a bunch of humans trying to stop a race of sentient machines." Nothing Hartdegen's blank expression, she shrugged. "Think the Terminator, but less talkative and more willing to just shoot everybody to get at their target."

"Ah," Hartdegen said, nodding in understanding. "So, not good, I assume?"

"Not really, if they're anything like their movie counterparts," Rachel said, looking back at the suits. "Whatever else you guys are, I don't think bulletproof is one of your powers."

"Indeed…" a voice gasped from one side. "Which is why… we have to get… out of here…"

Hartdegen and Rachel spun around in the direction of the voice, stopping short when they saw, standing just off to one side of them…

Henry Jekyll, Captain Nemo, and Phoebe Buffay, standing beside the cage, Jekyll clutching a large bottle of something in his right hand while Phoebe held him up by his left arm.

"Jekyll! Nemo!" Hartdegen smiled, looking eagerly between his two friends. Then his eagerness vanished, replaced by a more curious expression. "How did you get out?"

"Lockpicks in Nemo's turban," Phoebe explained, indicating the Indian scientist. "They probably didn't think he'd have anything on him apart from the sword."

"Unluckily for them," Nemo smiled, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a set of small metallic devices, which he then stuck in the cage lock and began to shimmy around for a few moments, the door popping open after that.

"YES!" Rachel yelled, punching the air and hugging Hartdegen in delight. "We're free!"

"Yeah, right… little… help here?" a voice said from the ground.

"Wha… Skinner?" Hartdegen began to ask, before looking down and seeing the thief; they'd almost forgotten about him in the excitement. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine… just a bit sore…" Skinner replied, as Hartdegen took his hand and hauled the invisible man to his feet, slinging the arm over his shoulder as he did so. "So… what… now?"

* * *

"Simple," Phoebesaid, indicating a third cage a bit off to the side, whose inhabitants all still appeared to be unconscious. "Wake up those guys, have Doctor J. take his serum, get out of here, and then tear through these guys and save the day!"

Rachel was about to protest, but then she stopped and shrugged.

"You know, Pheebs, when you put it like that, it almost seems like we have a chance," she said, smiling at her friend. She looked at Jekyll, slumped beside Phoebe, still not the most alert of men, and sighed. "Well, almost; we'd need everyone to be active first."

Jekyll looked up at that. He looked like he was about to speak again, but he changed his mind. Instead he reached over, popped open the bottle in his hands, and swallowed it down.

He looked over at Rachel, looking as though he was trying to refrain from screaming.

"You think I'm the weak link, Miss Green?" he asked, raising an inquiring eyebrow. "Then check _this _out…"

He screamed in pain as his shoulders and arms began to bulk out, tearing through his new shirt as they grew; fortunately the collar was already open, otherwise Jekyll may have been strangled by the sudden pressure on his neck no matter how strong he was.

In a few seconds, the large, muscular form of Edward Hyde was standing before the League and their friends, grinning casually at Rachel.

"Thanks for the prompt," he said to her. "I was getting so _sick _of being stuck in that worm's mind."

Rachel blinked vacantly at the sight in front of her. "H…Hyde?" she aside, partly for confirmation and partly just because she couldn't think of anything else.

"Who were you expecting; Edgar Allan Poe?" Hyde asked. Then he looked back at the still-occupied cage and sighed. "Let's just get your friends out of here and go."

Before anyone else could say anything, Hyde marched over towards the cage, grabbed the bars, and pulled them apart as though they were just paper. Reaching down, he scooped up Ross and Monica, slinging their unconscious bodies over his shoulder and picking Joey up in his hands, passing him over to Nemo.

"Let's just get out of here and kill something," Hyde grunted, as he began to lope casually towards a nearby door, punching through it with a minimal amount of effort. He walked through it, looked down a corridor…

And then dived back through the door as bullets began to fly past him.

"What the- what was that?" Rachel asked, indicating the bullets.

"Massive metal things about my size!" Hyde yelled, looking at her. "And trust me, they _don't _seem to want us to get out of here!"

"What?" Hartdegen asked, looking up at Hyde in shock. "Rachel and I saw those things only a few minutes ago; they weren't even _active_ then! How could our foe get them going so fast?"

"It mustn't have been a live feed…" Rachel said, sighing in frustration as she collapsed back onto the ground. "Great; we're cornered by something from a highly elaborate movie, we have no weapons, and the invisible guy's our best shot at escape and he can barely even walk!"

"Hey!" Skinner yelled, removing his arm from Hartdegen's shoulder and looking at her with what might have been an angry expression if half his face paint hadn't been rubbed off; as it was, he just looked like he'd been shot. "I'll have you know I'm perfectly weeeeeeeeee…"

He slipped over his own feet and fell to the floor.

"There, you see!" Rachel asked, indicating Skinner's dazed form. "How can we stop these guys!"

"Well," Hartdegen said, looking back at the damaged cages, "I do have an idea about that…"


	16. The One Where Hyde is a Shield

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League; I just own the plot and the bad guy.

Feedback: The more I get, the faster I write.

The One Where They Help Save the World

"You're kidding, right?" Phoebe asked, looking at Hartdegen in shock. "There's no _way _that's _ever _going to work!"

"If you can come up with something more effective, be my guest," Hartdegen replied, looking scathingly over at the blonde woman. "But right now, our friends are in trouble, and if this idea doesn't work, we won't be any worse off than we were before."

"Except that I'll be bloody _dead_ if you've miscalculated, you bastard!" Hyde yelled over at Hartdegen. "Did you take that into account?"

Hartdegen looked casually up at Hyde, apparently unintimidated by the man/creature's massive bulk.

"Yes, I did, Edward," the former teacher said, looking up at his friend with an expression that could have been on a statue's face. "But, quite frankly, when faced with a choice of certain death and a chance at life, wouldn't you rather take the chance?"

Hyde seemed about to retaliate, raising one fist as he faced Hartdegen, but, in the end, he lowered it and just glared at Hartdegen.

"If this fails, I'll come back and haunt you, you bastard," he said simply. Then he turned around and headed for the shattered cages, taking hold of the bars, and pulling with all his strength. The cage roof tore away from the main ground support, the metallic bars slowly cracking as Hyde lifted it, before the final 'link' vanished and the cage was two separate objects.

Laying the top part down on the ground, Hyde, aided by Terry, pulled off a few of the larger bars, the two of them then tossing the bars over to the others (Baring Skinner, who just tossed his one over to Monica). The rest of their group armed, Hyde then reached over, picked the cage's roof, and held it out in front of him critically. He shrugged and glanced over at Hartdegen.

"Looks like the idea'll work, Alex," he said, shrugging.

Then his eyes narrowed. "But if it doesn't, I'll throw you in front of me; remember that."

Hartdegen sighed as he raised his makeshift staff. "Let's just get this done, Hyde," he said, taking a couple of practice swings with his 'weapon' as he spoke. He looked over at Ross, Rachel, Monica, Phoebe and Joey. "Do any of you know anything about unarmed combat?"

Ross raised a hand slightly. "Well, um, Rachel and Phoebe took a self-defence class a few years ago, I did some kara-tay a few years before that, but, well, we're all a bit out of practice," he said sheepishly.

"I'm sorry; you did what?" Skinner asked inquiringly.

"He means karate," Rachel sighed, looking like she might want to use her staff to hit Ross for being such an idiot. "Don't ask me why he pronounces it that way; he always has."

"Right…" Hartdegen said, before shrugging and looking over at Ross, Rachel and Phoebe. "The important thing is, you three at least have some basic knowledge of combat situations." He looked over at Monica and Joey. "How about you two?"

"Well, I've done a bit of stage-fighting in acting classes," Joey said, his tone suggesting he doubted that it would be much help.

Hartdegen smiled at his new friend; somehow, there was something about Joey's obvious immaturity that you couldn't help but find likable.

"Well, that's better than nothing," he said, patting Joey reassuringly on the shoulder. "At least you know _approximately _where to hit, right? You just need to remember not to stop at the last second; got that?"

Joey nodded, and Hartdegen looked over at Monica, raising an inquiring eyebrow.

Monica shrugged. "Well, I do my bit, but I'm pretty much an amateur at this; I'd only really punch and kick a lot," she said, trying to sound casual.

"That's better than nothing," Hartdegen said. He looked around at the others. "OK everyone; listen up. Hyde, Nemo; you two are our first line of defence when we go through that door. Ross, Phoebe, Rachel; you're with me just behind them. Monica, you and Joey stay behind us. Skinner, you take position at the back, and get ready for action; if the worst comes to the worst, you might give us the element of surprise in a combat situation."

He looked around at them all, and then jerked his head towards the door. "Let's go; those things are waiting for us."

* * *

"DUCK!" Chandler yelled over at Mina, noticing the two men advancing on her with stakes in their hands. Mina ducked down instantly, and Chandler, after confirming Emma was safe, fired his gun rapidly at the men, striking them in the chest with bullets.

He still couldn't believe he was doing this; one minute he was just drinking coffee with his friends, and the next he was fighting a bunch armed madmen with a vampire and a spy while trying to protect his baby niece? He was _freaking KILLING_ these guys…

But, right now, he didn't have a choice. It was kill or be killed; kill or lose his friends, his wife, his brother-in-law, his niece…

He just hoped that, if there was a God, He'd excuse Chandler's actions at the moment…

Then something grabbed the gun barrel, and Chandler realised he'd had his eyes shut for the last few seconds.

"It's over, Chandler; they're all down," Tom's voice said to him. "You hear me? You can stop firing now. They're all dead."

Chandler's finger slid off the trigger of the gun, and he only vaguely registered that Emma was crying; he probably hadn't heard her earlier over the gunfire. Sticking the gun in his coat, he turned to Emma and tried bouncing the 'cradle' (He'd never been clear on what these things were called) up and down on his arm, trying to make her calm down. After a few seconds, she was at least prepared to be quiet, and Chandler looked back up at Tom and Mina.

"How much further till we reach the big cheese?" he asked, trying not to show how shaken he was by all this.

"The what?" Mina asked inquiringly.

"The _boss_," Chandler sighed, mentally reminding himself that, for all their powers, these guys were over a century out of date. "Think we're getting close to wherever it is he's hiding out in this place?"

Tom opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly the quiet hallway was filled by what sounded like a loud roar and what sounded like several bullets ricocheting off of something metallic.

Tom and Mina looked over at each other and sighed.

"Hyde," they both said.

"What?" Chandler said, looking at them in surprise. "You mean… as in _Edward_ Hyde? The personification of Henry Jekyll's evil side? He's _out_!"

"Apparently," Tom said, as he quickly checked his gun's ammunition before sliding the cartridge back and looking at the others. "We'd better get moving; Hyde's good in a combat situation back home, but he might need backup dealing with something from this time."

* * *

"Come _on_, you bastards!" Hyde roared at the suits in front of him, the cage roof held out in front of him as a makeshift shield. He silently reminded Jekyll to compliment Hartdegen on the idea when they got out of this; he'd enjoyed this strategy when he'd used it against the Fantom's forces on their first mission, but he'd almost overlooked the possibilities for trying it again before Hartdegen pointed the cages out.

_And, of course, you weren't sure the metal would hold up to the punishment…_ Jekyll critically commented in the back of Hyde's head.

_Shut up, Henry! _Hyde yelled at his 'better half' (He wished he had something better; it sounded like they were bloody _married _when he put it like that!). _I'm trying to bloody _focus _here, you worm!_

Then he heard something explode, and grinned.

"Nemo!" he yelled over the gunfire, glancing down beside him at the slightly smaller form of the Indian inventor. "Check what that was!"

"Very well," Nemo said, ducking down briefly to look underneath Hyde's 'shield' before looking back up at his friend. "One suit has lost one of its weapons, and another has been hit in the side by a piece of shrapnel from the exploding weapon and currently appears to be immobilized on the right side."

The right corner of Terry's mouth turned up in what was becoming the closest thing to a smile he'd ever given the League. "And, of course, I saw the other four coming up from behind them."

* * *

Rachel sounded like she would have choked if she'd had anything in her mouth at the time. "Waitaminute; _four_!" she whispered/yelled at Nemo. "You mean they brought _Emma _down here!"

"Well, where _else _could they leave her?" a voice called over to her from the back of the group. "In case you hadn't noticed, Miss Green, we're in a _bit _of a tricky position at the moment; it's not like we could just call someone to take care of the kid while we take out a bunch of time-travelling madmen!"

* * *

"_Don't tell me what we could or couldn't do to make sure my baby's safe_!" Rachel hissed, turning around to look at Skinner as she spoke; at least, she _thought_ she was looking at Skinner.

He didn't really have the heart to tell her he was a foot to the left…

Then there was a massive explosion, and the entire group swiftly had to jump back or get crushed by the large form of Hyde as he hit the ground, briefly dazed by the sheer scale of the shockwave, even with the cage roof blocking the worst of the explosion.

Instantly, Hartdegen and Nemo leapt forward, drawing their makeshift weapons (In Hartdegen's case; Nemo was using his sword), as the rest of their group shifted into a combat stance, ready to go down fighting if necessary…

And stared in surprise at the sight in front of them.

The explosions had been the three suits that had been firing at them, all three of which were now lying on the ground in varying degrees of wreckage; the one with the least damage was now suffering from a distinct lack of both weapons and at least one of its mechanical arms.

And, standing behind them, two of them holding large weapons while the third held Emma, were Tom, Chandler and Mina.

* * *

"Uh…" Hyde groaned, as he staggered to his feet. His eyes fell on the three (Or maybe four, depending on it you counted Emma) people standing behind the suits, and he sighed. "You know, we _did _have everything under control."

"Really?" Chandler asked, indicating the spent bullet shells lying around them. "This is evidently some kind of definition of 'control' that's fallen out of fashion in the last few decades?" He shrugged. "I see why it didn't catch on."

"Look, can we just _focus _here, please?" Joey asked, looking around at everyone. "We're still in the middle of a place filled with people who'll be perfectly happy to shoot us if we so much as _blink_ the wrong way at them, with only a bunch of rods to fight off attacking madmen armed with _guns_! _We have to get out of here_!"

"Can we all just calm down?" Mina sighed, as she walked towards the others and handed Emma back to Rachel. "We have to find out who's behind all this, or-"

"I'll give you a hint," a voice suddenly said from out of nowhere. "It's me."

Suddenly, before anyone could even react, Hartdegen and Phoebe suddenly found themselves yanked to the back of the group (A loud grunt from nothing seemed to have come from Skinner), stopping with two guns pointing at their backs, while the rest of the League could only stare in shock…

At the sight of two such large weapons suddenly appearing out of, and being held up by, nothing more than thin air.


	17. The One Where Ross Finds the Formula

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League; I just own the plot and the bad guy.

Feedback: The more I get, the faster I write.

The One Where They Help Save the World

Instantly, the League and the gang shifted into combat positions, Sawyer and Chandler drawing their weapons while Mina bared her claws and the rest raised their bars, Nemo drawing his sword as they faced their new…

Well, they could only assume it was 'foe' in the singular; for all they knew, it could be two or more people in front of them. The two guns seemed to be held at about the same height, but that could just be a matter of good teamwork or a bad view.

"Who are you?" Tom asked, taking charge as he held up a hand to warn Hyde to stay back; until they could determine who, or what, they were dealing with, Hyde's admittedly rather effective approach to tackling new foes could do more harm than good, especially with Hartdegen and Phoebe's lives at stake. "Are you the reason we're here?"

"Indeed," the voice said; now that the group was listening, it was noticeable that this voice was female, although tinged with a madness that would put some of the League's adversaries to shame. "My name is Kaitlin, and that is all you shall learn from me for the moment."

"Ah, come on, not even a little hint as to what you've got against these guys?" Joey asked, indicating the League with one hand as he held the bar in the other. "I mean, what are you, an immortal? Or were you just related to one of their adversaries?"

There was a pause for a few moments after that, eventually broken when Rachel turned around to look at Joey incredulously.

"You _know_ what the word 'adversaries' means?" she asked him.

Joey looked back her defensively. "Y'know, just because I don't know _many _big words doesn't mean I don't know _any_, Rache!"

"Excuse me," the voice said from behind Hartdegen and Phoebe. "But I believe that you wanted to know why I wish you all dead?"

"Oh, yeah, that's right," Rachel said, raising the bar in a defensive posture. "So, what was it?"

"Well, if you _must _know…" 'Kaitlin' said, sighing slightly, "your friend there got it right on the second guess; I am related to two of the League's future adversaries."

* * *

Sawyer blinked in surprise.

_Well, _that _was unexpected_… he thought to himself.

"Hold on a minute; they _haven't _met your… ancestor_s_… yet?" Ross asked, suddenly taking charge and staring at the midpoint between the guns in confusion. "But… why are you _doing _this? I mean, if the League _don't _encounter those guys, you could change things so that you're never born!"

"Yeah, what he said!" Phoebe cried out, her voice betraying the panic she felt at her and Hartdegen's current situation. "Do you _really _want to cease to exist for some guys you'll never meet!"

"That would be a small price to pay to ensure their greatness lives on!" 'Kaitlin' cried out. "They were incredible men…

"And _you_," she yelled, apparently covering the whole League in this statement, "were responsible for them failing to achieve their dreams! If you had never existed, they would have succeeded, and this world would be a better place for having been guided by their wisdom!"

"If we thought it necessary to fight them, I find it unlikely that such a thing would be the case, Miss Kaitlin," Nemo said, his sword raised as he waited for the opportunity to strike as soon as he could. "Now, let our friends go; at the very least, Miss Buffay has never done a thing to you."

"She _helped _you all, murderers!" Kaitlin screamed, jabbing the gun into Phoebe's back. "For that, she shall-"

And then Phoebe kicked out behind her, striking something that none of the people watching could see and sending the guns flying into the air, as something invisible struck the ground with a loud thump.

"_Run_!" Phoebe yelled, and the others didn't waste any time; they simply gripped whatever it was that they were using as a weapon and ran down the corridor, away from the invisible figure.

* * *

"OK, _that _was just weird!" Monica said, as she glanced over at Hartdegen inquiringly. "Any ideas who she could be related to? I mean, is the invisibility thing genetic or what?"

"Genetic?" Skinner asked, looking over at Monica in confusion.

"As in, would your kids be invisible if you had any?" Monica added, as they rounded a corner and began to run down another long corridor.

"How the hell should we know; time travel _isn't _a common practice for most of us, you know!" Hyde yelled, from where he was running in front of them; as the largest member of the group, he'd automatically shifted to the front of the group when they'd started running. "We've never had reason to figure out what happens to _us _in the future!"

"Come on, just shut up and keep running, we're nearly out…" Chandler said, as they rounded a corner, charged through a door…

And found themselves in the middle of a large room, filled with both high-tech machinery and several various assorted armed henchmen, who turned to look at them all in confusion.

"Oh crap…" Ross muttered, as he stared around at the vast army before them. "We're in trouble."

* * *

It was Joey who made the first move in the 'fight', pulling out his iron bar and holding it over a large piece of machinery covered in blinking lights.

"OK; nobody move or this gets it!" he said, trying to sound threatening, although he almost looked more nervous that Rachel did.

Sawyer groaned. "Joey, you _can't _destroy anything here; don't you remember, we _kind _of need the time machine these guys have to get home?"

"Oh yeah…" Joey said, sheepishly. "And, lemme guess, we don't know what that is?"

"Yes, unfortunately," Hartdegen said, sighing. "We have a problem…"

"Which, fortunately, _we _don't share," one of the men said, raising a gun and pointing it at the group, followed closely by the other men.

"Now then, you can either come quietly, or we shoot you all now and leave your bodies in the garbage," the man said, smiling at the League and their friends. "Your call."

* * *

Sawyer sighed as he looked around at the men facing them; only about twenty men, each one armed with a large gun that packed a far greater punch than anything he knew from his time, and, on his side, all they had were two guns, a vampire, an invisible man, an eight-foot-tall mass of muscle, one martial arts expert with a big sword, and about six or seven men and women armed with metal bars, as well as a baby being held by one of the men holding a gun.

Overall, not brilliant odds.

Unless he changed the dynamics of the situation.

Looking up, he saw two long lights hanging above them, connected to the roof by thin cables. They didn't look that thick, and the odds of him pulling it off were slim…

But, if he didn't at least try it, their chances of survival were practically nonexistent.

He raised his gun and fired a spree of bullets at the nearer of the lights, tearing through the cables that held it up. As sparks spread out from the cables, the main light crashed to the ground, throwing up dust and small pieces of rubble that briefly blinded the gunmen facing them.

"Chandler, _fire_!" Sawyer called out back at his new friend.

Although shaken at the sudden collapse in front of him, Chandler, to his credit, didn't falter; he just raised the gun and fired at the gunmen with Sawyer, their weapons tearing through the men before they could even fully process what had just happened. Those men who weren't killed by the gunfire were immobilised by bullets in the arms or legs, and even if the wounds weren't fatal, there were still enough to keep them out of action for a while.

* * *

Once the guns clicked on empty cartridges, Chandler and Sawyer threw the guns off to the side and looked back at the others.

"Everyone OK?" Sawyer asked.

"We'll all fine, I think," Hartdegen said, looking around at the others; nobody was injured, although Rachel and Phoebe were staring at the sight in front of them with horror-struck expressions.

"Wh… what… just… happened?" Rachel asked, looking at the sight before her in horror.

"Put simply, we saved us from getting turned into Swiss cheese," Chandler said, as he looked over at the gunmen before turning back to the door, which had been shut and locked by Joey and Skinner during the commotion. "Look, shouldn't we get moving; that invisible wacko'll be coming after us any minute!"

"Look, I don't think there's no way to open the door from that side now that it's locked at this side; we've got some time, at least," Skinner said, before looking around at the equipment in the room; fortunately, none of it had been damaged by crossfire. "So, what're all these things?"

"Computers," Ross explained, at he walked over to the nearest device and, examining the screen, began to scroll through the documents on the computer. "They're used pretty often in this modern world, actually. Maybe they'll have some explanation about how to…"

His eyes widened.

"Oh my god!" he said.

* * *

"What?" Skinner asked, walking over to glance at the screen over Ross's shoulder. "What have you- OH MY GOD!" he said, looking at the screen in horror. "That's the _invisibility formula_!"

"What?" Hartdegen said, as the rest of the group looked over at the teacher and the ex-thief in surprise. "You mean… our foe was able to _duplicate _that?"

"Yeah, it looks like it…" Ross said, as he scanned down the page, awe on his face. "My field isn't really biology- or physics, for that matter- but I can see how this process works… I think…."

"Let Hyde and I take a look," Hartdegen said, as the two of them moved towards the screen. "We may be a bit out of date by this time, but we're still the most knowledgeable about the human body and physics in our little group. Maybe we can find something out that we can use when we get back home…"

* * *

"You mean… like a cure?" Skinner asked, looking over at them hopefully as Hartdegen and Hyde took up positions around the screen.

"'Maybe' is all Henry has to say on that front…" Hyde said, as he began to scan the formula on the screen. Even he had to admit, this was a very impressive piece of work. This bit of the formula turned the blood's pigmentation from red to colourless… The feature that stopped the subject's cells from absorbing light…

* * *

Hartdegen frowned.

"That's odd…" he said, looking at a certain part of the formula.

"What?" Joey asked, looking at the professor inquiringly. "What's odd?"

"There's something here that doesn't make sense…" Jekyll said, as he reached up and tapped the section of the formula that was puzzling him. "This bit here… it seems to contain instructions to _stop _something happening."

"What?" Mina said, walking towards the screen to look at it herself.

* * *

She frowned. "That _is _odd…"

"Any ideas _what _it's stopping?" Sawyer asked, looking at his vampire lover curiously.

"Yeah; do I not have to worry about having kids or something?" Skinner asked, as he shrugged his way back into his clothes, which he'd given to Joey shortly before they'd broken out of captivity.

"No, it doesn't stop your _body _doing anything; it seems to stop the serum _itself _from doing something…" Mina said, as she studied the equations on the screen curiously. "I am not an expert biologist by any means, but I think this bit of the formula somehow manages to…"

She looked over at Skinner in confusion. "… let your _eyes _keep on absorbing light?"

"What?" Monica said, looking at Mina in confusion. "You're saying his _eyes _are _visible_? They certainly don't _look _it!"

"No, no, they're invisible all right- they don't actually _reflect _the light they absorb- but they are definitely absorbing light…" Mina mused, as he looked at his friend curiously. "I wonder why…."

"Um, suggestion?" Rachel said, raising her hand. "I don't really remember my high school science, but I'm _pretty _sure something was mentioned about the eyes needing to _absorb _light in order to see stuff; maybe this is what lets Skinner actually see anything?"

The others all looked at Rachel for a few moments; her friends also adopted a very… _incredulous_, to say the least… expression, as though they couldn't quite believe she'd worked that out before any of them.

"What?" Rachel said, noting the way they were looking at her. "Just because I work in fashion doesn't mean I can't know _something _about science, right?"

Eventually, Sawyer broke the silence, looking over at Mina and Skinner.

"So… is there a way we could use that against our foe?" he asked them. "I mean, if we've got the formula, couldn't we whip up a version of it that _doesn't _leave the eyes free of the serum?"

"Maybe…" Mina said, as she looked at the formula on the screen curiously. Then she sighed and looked back at the others. "I could do it, but it's irrelevant anyway; we don't have anything that we could use to make the serum."

* * *

"Um… guys?" Joey said, from where he'd wandered over to a cupboard on the opposite side of the room. "Would this work?"

He opened the cupboard, revealing a large assortment of chemicals and beakers. "I think these guys probably used this place as a lab or something similar."

Mina walked over to examine the chemicals briefly, and then smiled up at Joey.

"Perfect, Mr Tribbianni," she said, nodding in approval. "Thank you."

She glanced back at the others as she began to pull out the equipment. "Mr Skinner, I'll need your assistance in preparing the serum; Mr Gellar, see if you can find some way to get us a version of that formula on paper and we'll take it from there. The rest of you, get these henchmen tied up and make sure they can't interfere. Professor Hartdegen, see what you can do about figuring out which of these machines controls the time machine; we'll need it when we're done here."

As the League and their friends began to get down to business, Ross turning back to the computer to try and find the printer, Mina could only hope this worked.

If not, she wasn't sure _how _she and the other League members would get home; advantage in numbers or not, an invisible foe was still a dangerous foe, especially one as mad as this 'Kaitlin' woman seemed to be.


	18. The One Where They Tackle a Maniac

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League; I just own the plot and the bad guy.

Feedback: The more I get, the faster I write.

**Madamwolf:** Glad to hear it; if I'm going to be doing such a bizarre idea as this, I might as well do it well

The One Where They Help Save the World

"How's it going?" Sawyer asked, walking over to stand beside Mina as the rest of the League began to pick up the discarded weapons of the henchmen Chandler and Sawyer had taken down earlier. Rachel and Phoebe were still refusing to use guns, but Sawyer had stationed them at the back of the room with Emma, figuring that Rachel would probably be happier to keep an eye on her baby than to try tackling an invisible homicidal maniac.

"Well, as well as you'd except, really," Mina replied, smiling back at her lover briefly before turning to her work. "I think I've managed to isolate which parts of the serum are responsible for protecting the subject's vision, but, for obvious reasons, we can't actually test it until we inject this 'Kaitlin' woman with it."

* * *

"And we _still_ aren't sure if it'll even accomplish anything!" Monica said, looking over at Sawyer from where she was studying the gun she'd been given, unsure how she should feel about having to shoot at another person. "I mean, if it _does _render her blind, what do we do then? Let her stagger around while we make our escape?"

"Personally, I'm more in favour of kicking her ass while she can't see to fight back," Skinner said, shrugging casually. "After all-"

Hyde held up one hand. "Can you all stop nattering on for a moment? I think I heard something."

"Eh?" Joey said, looking at Hyde in surprise. "I'm not hearing anything."

"Well, you wouldn't, would you; Hyde _does _have enhanced senses beyond the human norm," Hartdegen put in, from where he, Nemo and Ross had positioned themselves to the left of the door they'd come in by- which, from what they could ascertain, was the only way in or out of the room they had arrived in. "What are you hearing, Edward?"

"A small army," Hyde grunted. "It sounds like our opponent picked up some assistance while she was on her way over here; I think I can hear at least twenty men, not counting her."

"Wait a minute; _twenty_!" Ross said, looking over at Hyde in horror. "How are we expected to take on _that _many at once!"

"Simply put, we can't," Sawyer said, as he checked the gun one last time before looking back at the others. "Which is why we'll need to improve the odds. Everyone get around the door, but stay out of sight; Mina, Monica, Alex, Chandler, you're with me."

He raised his gun, checked the ammunition one more time, and smiled. "We've got some ass to kick."

* * *

Still invisible, but now dressed in a long black leather coat that flapped behind her in what she felt was a suitably dramatic manner, Kaitlin smiled to herself as she checked the Berettas that were concealed in the pockets of the coat before glancing back at the soldiers behind her.

After the League and their allies had escaped her, she'd triggered the silent alarm to summon her top soldiers to her present location, and had then ordered them to accompany her to the League's present location.

Reaching into her coat to pull out her Berettas, Kaitlin smiled.

At last, the moment she'd waited for all her life was here.

The League would fall, and her grandfathers would at last get the chance to rule the world, as they should have done all those years ago. That she would most likely no longer exist was a price she was more than willing to pay; it hadn't been much of a life anyway.

She rounded another corner, and was greeted with the welcome sight of Mina Harker standing in front of her, daggers clasped in her hands as she stared at the soldiers in front of her in hatred.

* * *

"You came, then," Mina said, nodding briefly at the floating leather coat in front of her as she flexed her fingers over her daggers. "After the beating we gave you earlier, I would have thought you'd have preferred to count your blessings and evacuate."

"Hardly," Kaitlin said, grinning. "I've waited too long for my chance to save my ancestors to be thwarted at the last minute by a minor setback."

The invisible woman seemed to turn her attention to the daggers in Mina's hands. "I wouldn't try anything with those, Mrs Harker; my men are equipped with specially-designed hollow-tipped bullets that contain holy water. If any of them so much as graze you, no matter what kind of state you're in at the time, you'll be as good as dead; 'good' o not, you're still a vampire."

"Really?" Mina inquired, tilting her head to one side as she looked at Kaitlin in a manner that suggested she was humouring a difficult child. "You obviously didn't do your research; the effects that holy water has on my class of vampire are minimal, to say the least. At best, I'd have a light skin rash, and even that's only a maybe."

Mina allowed herself a slight smile as she heard Kaitlin's heartbeat accelerate slightly. It wasn't by much, but given the ice queen that she'd seemed to be earlier, any sign of fear was a good thing for Mina and her associates right now.

"You're bluffing," Kaitlin said; to her credit, her voice didn't betray the slightest trace of fear. "You think I won't shoot you if I'm not sure it will do anything."

"Maybe," Mina said, as she looked back at the other woman, casually rolling one dagger around in her right hand. "Or maybe I'm just trying to make things easier for you."

She stared at Kaitlin, hoping that she was looking at the other woman's eyes. "Give up, Kaitlin. This accomplishes nothing. _Nothing_."

Kaitlin appeared to shake her head; at least, her body moved slightly, as though it was performing that very action. "You cannot understand my motives, Mrs Harker; such is the curse of being a genius," she said. "This will accomplish much in the world. It can… it will…. It _must_!"

Mina sighed as she looked back at the Invisible Woman. "You know, I am _really _starting to dislike you," she said, rolling her eyes in pity. "I had hoped that we might be able to find some common ground; some point that we could both agree on and work our way from there. But, if you persist in this, I must concede that there is no hope for you."

She glared directly at where Kaitlin's eyes should be. "You will fall, Miss Kaitlin."

Kaitlin made a brief gesture with her arm, and suddenly, all the weapons were pointing at Mina.

"You first," she said.

Mina swallowed, apparently nervously.

"So be it," she said. She began to lower her daggers, as though recognising that she was in a hopeless position…

Then she leapt back up, threw the daggers towards the gunmen, leapt into the air, turned into a bunch of bats, and flew off down the corridors, leaving two men with the daggers in their throats and at least three others with injured arms.

"AFTER HER!" Kaitlin screamed at the remaining walking soldiers, as the two who'd been struck collapsed to the ground. "DON'T LET HER GET AWAY! SHE- _ALL_ OF THEM- MUST _PAY_!"

* * *

Chandler chuckled slightly as he heard their opponent yell, glancing over at where Monica and Hartdegen were holding guns as they stood on the opposite side of the corridor; Sawyer was standing a foot or two down the corridor on the same side as him.

"Think she's annoyed yet?" he asked his wife, as he raised his gun and checked the ammunition once again, trying desperately to take his mind off the fact that he was going to have to kill people again before they could get out of this place…

"Oh, she's ticked; she sounds like me on a bad day," Monica said, smiling over at her husband as a faint flapping sound was heard. "Here they come…" she said, as a black mass of bats came tearing past them, faint glimpses of red the only sign that Mina was there, followed closely by pounding feet.

"On three," Sawyer said to the others, as they all raised their weapons. "One… two… THREE!"

The three of them leapt out into the corridor and fired wildly in front of them, mowing down Kaitlin's followers even as they turned around the last corner, bullets riddling them from the unexpected attack. Those who could dived back around the corridor out of harm's way, but even with that move, the originally eighteen-man team was still reduced to about a third of its original numbers by the time the unlikely gathering had run out of ammunition.

* * *

Monica blinked in surprise at the fallen bodies in front of them, and then she dropped her gun, turned to face Chandler, and collapsed into his arms, sobbing quietly into his shirt.

"Oh God…" she whispered, as he held her in his arms. "I killed them… I killed them…"

"Ssshhh…" Chandler whispered, as he planted a light kiss on her forehead. "It's OK… we had to…"

"It was them or us, Mrs Bing," Hartdegen said, placing a consoling hand on Monica's shoulder. "We don't blame you for what you have had to do to help us."

"Oh nice way of avoiding guilt, _murderers_!" a voice screamed from behind them. "Is that what you always say; 'It was them or us'? You think that excuses what you'll do to my grandparents!"

"Kaitlin," Sawyer said, as he turned around to face the floating coat and guns that was all that gave away the presence of their latest challenge, "can't you just give us a break and let us get you some help? This is pointless; it doesn't help anyone!"

"It helps my ancestors achieve their true status!" Kaitlin yelled back, as she raised her guns and pointed them at Sawyer and Hartdegen. "You _must _DIE!"

"You first," Sawyer said, as he reached into his jacket, whipped out his traditional Colts, and fired them directly at the coat. Kaitlin ducked downwards as the bullets flew towards her, but she still gave off a small yelp of pain as one bullet grazed her right shoulder.

"MOVE!" Sawyer yelled at the others, as the four of them spun around and began to run down the corridor, Sawyer turning around now and again to fire off a bullet at the coat that was flying through the air after them.

As they rounded a corridor and dived through the door into the lab, Sawyer spun around to look at where Ross and Joey were standing on either side of the door.

"Get ready!" he said. "She's coming!"

The two men nodded, raised their arms, and grabbed the arms of the coat as it tore into the room, guns pointing ahead of it. Simultaneously, Phoebe and Rachel kicked the weapons out of Kaitlin's hands, and Skinner, grabbing Kaitlin's shoulder, whipped out a hypodermic needle and dug it into a vein in her neck as he pushed the needle home.

Kaitlin screamed in rage, lashing out with a kick that knocked Skinner off her, an empty needle now clutched in his hand as he struck the ground. Ross and Joey soon followed, flying off to the side as Kaitlin hit them both on the foreheads with a desperate punch.

The invisible woman than dived towards Sawyer, arms outstretched, before the two of them fell to the ground, fingers closing around the spy's throat.

"DIE!" Kaitlin yelled at Sawyer as her fingers tightened around his throat. "Die for _good_, you bas… bas…"

Suddenly, she relaxed her grip and looked up at the rest of the room in confusion.

"What the…" she muttered in horror. "W-who turned the lights out?"

Ross chuckled slightly as he looked at the dazed… coat. "Nobody did, _Kaitlin_," he said, mockingly. "That needle Skinner hit you with contained an enhanced version of the serum; this model _doesn't _leave your eyes absorbing light while everything else stops."

"WHAT!" Kaitlin yelled in horror as she rolled off Sawyer and leapt to her feet, her sleeves feeling at her eyes. "I'm… I'm _blind_!"

"Yeah…" Sawyer said, gasping as he staggered to his feet and looked at Kaitlin. "It's over, Kaitlin; please believe that. Just… end it now, and everything'll be fine…"

"NEVER!" Kaitlin screamed, as she lashed out with a massive punch in the direction of the spy's voice…

Only to have Sawyer grab the wrist in question and twist it with such force that Kaitlin collapsed to the ground.

"Hold her down!" Sawyer yelled over at Ross and Joey, who grabbed the invisible woman's arms and legs as Sawyer crouched down beside her head.

"Look, Kaitlin," Sawyer sighed, as he stared at where her head _should _be, even if he couldn't actually see it, "it's over. You've failed. Can't you just accept that?"

"NO!" Kaitlin screamed, trying to break free…

Then Phoebe kicked her in the head, and the invisible woman collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Noting the stares in her direction, Phoebe just smiled.

"What; you think I can't kick ass when I need to?" she asked casually.

"Uh… right…" Hartdegen said, as he looked over at the other League members inquiringly. "So… what now?"


	19. The One Where They Part Ways

Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League; I just own the plot and the bad guy.

Feedback: The more I get, the faster I write.

The One Where They Help Save the World

"We have to leave her here," Chandler said, sighing as he looked around at the base. "I just can't see any cops in the present being able to cope with something like _this_ set-up."

"Yeah, that's true," Ross said, nodding in agreement as he and Joey stood up.

"Agreed," Monica said.

"Wouldn't mind having to avoid making witness statements," Rachel added.

"I say we just go before this gets any worse," Joey said, before looking over at the League. "How do we do that?"

"Simple," Hyde grunted from where he was standing in the corner of the room. "Send me out there, and I'll tear through this place like a house of cards-"

"No; you don't have enough energy for that," Sawyer said, holding up a hand. "Trust me, Hyde, you're looking practically dead on your feet; you don't have the time to cause a serious amount of damage before your serum runs out."

He looked over at Hartdegen, who was examining the machinery in the room. "You got any ideas as to how that thing works?"

"I think so…" Hartdegen said, as he looked over the machinery with a thoughtful smile. "It's essentially a similar principal to my time machine; it's just that this version doesn't need to come _with_ the person who's travelling in time, it can send them to their destination by remote. All I need to do is make sure I've got the coordinates set right, and then I can send us all back home."

He looked over at the League's new friends with a smile. "I can even use this to send you home before anyone even realises you were missing."

"What?" Phoebe asked, looking at Hartdegen in confusion. "You mean… just send us to Monica's apartment after we were dragged out of it?"

"After _we _left it," Chandler said, raising his hand and glancing over at Emma, who had been picked up by Rachel from where they'd hidden her under one of the control consoles. "Don't want to change history too much, do we?"

"Yeah, good point…" Hartdegen said, as he studied the controls with a small smile before looking back at the others. "Even better; this machine has a self-destruct mechanism."

"Powerful enough to take this dump with it?" Skinner asked, looking up from where he was now sitting on Kaitlin; evidently, he'd decided that this was the best way to make sure she stayed immobilised until they were finished.

"Maybe…" Hartdegen muttered, as he studied the data on the screen thoughtfully. "If we can just give it a bit of a power boost, that might work…"

He looked over at the others with a small smile on his face. "Of course, I'll need to make sure it isn't _too _powerful; we don't want to destroy any-"

Hyde held up a hand. "Less talking, more doing; we have some soldiers coming this way," he said, looking at Hartdegen with a slightly strained expression on his face, like a man trying to hold on to something. "And trust me; there's a lot of them."

Rachel visibly paled. "Um… Ed?" she asked, raising a nervous hand. "How much is 'a lot'?"

"Around thirty; maybe more," Hyde said grimly. "Too much for us to handle, especially in close quarters."

"Yeah, that's true," Sawyer said, indicating the narrow door. "That door may mean only a few of them can get to us at any one time, but it also means we can't take out more than a certain number of them at once; eventually, we'll run out of ammo, and I _really _don't fancy our chances at hand-to-hand."

"Just a moment…" Hartdegen said, gritting his teeth as he began to tap at a few keys in front of the screen, before looking over at the non-League members of the group. "If you just stand over there- and one of you holds _this_ while the rest of you hold on to them," he said, tossing a rectangular silver device over to Joey, who caught it and looked at it.

"What is it?" he asked, looking over at Hartdegen.

"A homing beacon with your apartment building keyed in as its destination," Hartdegen said, smiling slightly at Rachel's initial discomfort; evidently, she remembered the condition the League had been in after their trip to the future. "Don't worry; according to this, the discomfort is greatest when the trip is longer. For what I'm planning- a few hours into the past and a few miles or so into the city- you shouldn't be in any worse condition than being dizzy for a while."

"Ah," Phoebe said, as she and Chandler moved to place their hands on Joey's shoulders; Monica took Chandler's hand, and Rachel and Ross placed their hands on Phoebe's shoulders, Emma in Ross's right arm.

The six New Yorkers looked over at their newfound friends, tears visible in the eyes of some of them, until Chandler finally broke the silence and spoke.

"Um… thanks," he said, smiling over at Mina and Sawyer. "It's been fun knowing you all."

Sawyer smiled and gave Chandler a brief thumbs-up.

"No, guys; thank _you_," he said, as the rest of the League gave the New Yorkers similar gestures of appreciation. "If you hadn't been here, we'd never have managed to stop Kaitlin. We owe you one."

"Ah, well… it was nothing, really," Rachel said, smiling sheepishly. "Who wouldn't turn down the chance to save the world?"

"That's true," Joey said, as he looked back at the slab in his hands before looking back at Hartdegen. "So, will we see you again?"

Hartdegen sighed. "Maybe, Joseph," he said, as he reached out to the keys. "We'll just have to see what happens."

His finger hovered over a key on the computer keyboard, as he looked back at the gang.

"Goodbye," he said, as his finger descended towards the board…

* * *

Chandler wasn't sure what he'd been expecting. Bright lights, rewinding clocks, stars and explosions around him as they headed for their destination…

But all he saw was a brief flash of purple, and then, suddenly, they were all standing in the middle of the hall between their apartments, looking at each other in confusion.

Joey spoke first.

"Uh… wha time is it?" he said, looking around at the others.

Opening the apartment door, Monica walked into her home and glanced over at the clock, before looking back at the others. "About eight o'clock; it's almost an hour ago."

"Uh… right," Ross said, as he absent-mindedly set the hands on his watch to compensate for the change, the others doing the same.

They looked around at each other for a few moments, before Phoebe broke the silence.

"Well," she said, smiling around at the others, "_now _are you guys more prepared to believe that stuff goes on in this freaky ol' world of ours that we don't know about?"

Monica shrugged. "After seeing Mina do that bat thing, I'll believe anything," she said.

"I'm certainly prepared to acknowledge that there _are _areas where I should be more open-minded," Ross said, nodding slightly as he spoke.

"Same here," Joey said, raising a hand.

"Ditto," Rachel added.

"Newly-converted member of the supernatural club standing right here," Chandler added, raising his hand as well.

Then he lowered his hand, and sighed slightly as he stared up at the ceiling.

"Chandler?" Monica asked, looking at her husband curiously. "What's wrong?"

"Just… wondering, I guess," Chandler said, before he looked back at the others. "Think we'll ever see them again?"

Monica clasped his hand and gave it an affectionate squeeze. She could tell that, out of all of them, Chandler had been the one most affected by their time with the League; after all, he had spent the most time with them after the others were captured, even if it was just two of them.

"I think…" Joey said eventually, looking around at the others as he spoke. "I think… so long as they've got Alex's time machine, there's always hope. Right?"

The others smiled.

Indeed, they could hope. After all, no matter what else changed in the world, there was always that detail, wasn't there?


End file.
